这
T H E
创意工厂
IDEA FACTORY
这
T H E
创意
工厂
IDEA
FACTORY
在麻省理工学院学习思考
LEARNING TO THINK
AT MIT
胡椒白
PEPPER WHITE
谨以此书献给我的母亲和我的父亲。
This book is dedicated to my mother and to the memory of my father.
致谢
Acknowledgments
在本书首次出版的过程中，许多人帮助和鼓励了我。其中包括约翰·马蒂尔 (John Mattill)、利兹·穆瑟 (Liz Muther)、琳达·西蒙 (Linda Simon)、阿克利鲁·格布鲁沃尔德 (Aklilu Gebrewold)、卡尔·勃兰特 (Carl Brandt)、比尔·纽林 (Bill Newlin)、比尔·伊贾姆斯 (Bill Ijams)，以及普特南出版社的匿名编辑，他在一封拒绝信中告诉我，如果我想出版作品，就必须找一位文学经纪人。这本书。
Many people helped and encouraged me along the way to the first publication of this book. Among them were John Mattill, Liz Muther, Linda Simon, Aklilu Gebrewold, Carl Brandt, Bill Newlin, Bill Ijams, and the anonymous editor at Putnam who, in a rejection letter, told me to find a literary agent if I ever wanted to publish this book.
还要感谢麻省理工学院的教授和朋友们审阅了原版的部分内容；特别感谢 Elias P. Gyftopoulos 教授允许使用他的课程笔记和教科书“热力学：基础与应用”（Macmillan，1991）中的材料，并感谢他的更正。
Thanks also to the MIT professors and friends who reviewed sections of the original version; special thanks to Professor Elias P. Gyftopoulos for permission to use material from his course notes and textbook "Thermodynamics: Foundations and Applications" (Macmillan, 1991), and for his corrections.
非常感谢我的文学经纪人马拉加·巴尔迪。感谢已故的亚历克西娅·多尔辛斯基（Alexia Dorszynski），我的第一位编辑，她告诉我不要审查自己，也没有审查我。
Many thanks to Malaga Baldi, my literary agent. And thanks to the late Alexia Dorszynski, my first editor, who told me not to censor myself and who did not censor me.
感谢麻省理工学院出版社的主编拉里·科恩 (Larry Cohen)，他是我在 1984 年冬天第一个向我提交原始手稿的人。他当时的鼓励帮助我坚持了下来，我很感激现在有机会将这本书重新印刷。
Thanks to Larry Cohen, Editor-in-Chief at The MIT Press, who in the winter of 1984 was the first person to whom I submitted a primitive manuscript. His encouragement at that time helped me persist, and I appreciate the present opportunity to return the book to print.
最后，衷心感谢我的妻子伊丽莎白·罗斯·怀特（Elizabeth Ross White），她的审稿意见极大地改进了本版的新材料。
Finally, warm thanks to my wife, Elizabeth Ross White, whose review comments greatly improved the new material in this edition.
内容
C O N T E N T S
麻省理工学院新闻版序言xiii
Preface to the MIT Press Edition xiii
序言1
Prologue 1
2.17 班
2. Class 17
3.休息30
3. Break 30
4.期中考试45
4. Midterm 45
5. 资金60
5. Funding 60
6. 决赛69
6. Finals 69
7. 公会78
7. The Guild 78
8.监工93
9. 春天108
9. Spring 108
10.控制119
10. In Control 119
11.西格玛德尔塔134
11. Sigma Delta 134
12.二七十145
12. Two Seventy 145
13.自杀是无痛的吗？163
14.永动机174
16.闪电爸爸203
16. Papa Flash 203
17.六人欢乐215
18.结果230
18. Results 230
19. 不，不是250
19. No It Isn't 250
20.质量控制260
21.继续教育277
第287 章
Chapter Notes 287
索引309
Index 309
难道我们不能弥合导致心灵内乱的鸿沟吗？双方极端分子都说，不！诗人和信仰者申明，只有通过人的精神，通过直觉的理解，他才能触及真实的现实。那些头脑更顽固的人会抛弃这种态度，认为这是无望的神秘主义、非理性和错误的。大多数男人无法决定任何一条道路，并试图过双重生活。与科学对话的海德与艺术、政治或宗教的杰基尔是不同的人。许多人认为这种分裂的效忠是不可避免的。……但这种二元性很难为任何令人满意的生活哲学提供坚实的基础。最好的情况是令人士气低落，最坏的情况是危险......
Can we not bridge the chasm which thus makes for civil strife within the mind? The extremists on both sides say, no! The poet and the man of faith affirm that only through man's spirit, through intuitive understanding, can he touch true reality. Those who have harder heads will toss this attitude aside as hopeless mysticism, irrational and false. Most men cannot decide on either course, and attempt to live a double life. The Hyde who holds discourse with science is a different man from the Jekyll of art or politics or religion. This divided allegiance is accepted as inevitable by many. ... But such duality can hardly offer a sound basis for any satisfying life philosophy. At best it is demoralizing, at worst, perilous....
-来自爱德华·W·辛诺特 (Edward W. Sinnott)，《科学与完整的人》，百年纪念演讲，耶鲁大学谢菲尔德科学学院，1947 年 10 月
-From Edward W. Sinnott, "Science and the Whole Man," centennial address, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, October 1947
麻省理工学院
新闻版序言
Preface to the MIT
Press Edition
“这本书还不够严厉。”——一位麻省理工学院的博士 他也是哈佛大学医学博士 (1999)
"The book wasn't harsh enough."-an MIT Ph.D. who is also a Harvard M.D. (1999)
“我读了这本书，这就是我想来麻省理工学院的原因。”——麻省理工学院课程的一名本科生，该课程将这本书作为必读内容（1996 年）
"I read it and that's why I wanted to come to MIT."-an undergraduate in an MIT course that included this book as required reading (1996)
“这本书在会议上不断出现。”——麻省理工学院的一位教授（1993）
"That book keeps coming up at meetings."-an MIT professor (1993)
“如果你想知道为什么我没有给麻省理工学院捐过钱，请阅读佩珀·怀特的书。”——麻省理工学院的一位富有的潜在捐助者，曾在那里读研究生（1992 年）
"If you want to see why I haven't given any money to MIT, read Pepper White's book."-a wealthy potential donor to MIT who went there for graduate school (1992)
“这是我读过的最悲伤的书。”——麻省理工学院合作社的一名销售员（1991 年）
"It's the saddest book I've ever read."-a sales clerk at the MIT Cooperative Society (1991)
我于 1984 年从麻省理工学院 (MIT) 获得硕士学位。本书第一版于 1991 年出版。麻省理工学院出版社于 2001 年出版。
I received my master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The first edition of this book was published in 1991. The MIT Press edition appears in 2001.
萨尔曼·拉什迪说，书籍选择作者。我的父亲是一位科普作家，毕业于哈佛大学工程学专业，二战后为万尼瓦尔·布什工作。我的母亲是一位才华横溢的钢琴家，她教会了我音乐的精神层面。在约翰·霍普金斯大学，我接受了文科工程本科教育，包括艺术史、电影、外语以及个人发展的时间和机会。
Salman Rushdie said that books choose their authors. My father was a science writer, a Harvard-educated engineering major who after World War II worked for Vannevar Bush. My mother is a gifted pianist who has educated me about the spiritual dimension of music. At Johns Hopkins I had a liberal arts engineering undergraduate education, including art history, cinema, foreign languages, and time and opportunity to develop as a person.
一个笔误导致我通过“技术与政策”项目的后门被麻省理工学院录取。慷慨的举动使我获得了一份带薪研究助理职位，并成为我的论文导师，一位名副其实的天才。一次意外的缺席让我在本科生宿舍住了两年。Warren Rohsenow 教授要求我除了研究生课程外，还必须学习核心的本科机械工程课程。一只看不见的手带领我走过研究所的深处和高峰。
A clerical error led to my being accepted to MIT, through the back door of the "Technology and Policy" program. A generous act led me to a paid research assistantship and a veritable genius as my thesis advisor. An unplanned absence placed me for two years in an undergraduate dormitory. And Professor Warren Rohsenow required me to take the core undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum in addition to my graduate courses. An invisible hand led me through the depths and heights of the Institute.
1988 年我父亲去世后不久，我在他的个人文件中发现了前一页中爱德华·W·辛诺特 (Edward W. Sinnott) 的引文，以及该地址的其他摘录。我把它带回家了。一年后，当我试图了解这本书的内容时，我掸掉泛黄的洋葱皮纸复写本上的灰尘，感到浑身起鸡皮疙瘩。这是我父亲送给我的礼物。理性与表现主义。辩证唯物主义——前苏联的国家哲学——和宗教。正题和反题。稗子和麦子。
Shortly after my father passed away in 1988, I found among his personal papers the Edward W. Sinnott quotation from a prior page, as well as other excerpts of the address. I took it home with me. When attempting a year later to discover what this book was to be about I dusted off the yellowing onion-skin-papered carbon copy and felt goose bumps. It was a gift from my father. The rational and the expressionistic. Dialectical materialism-the state philosophy of the former Soviet Union-and religion. Thesis and antithesis. The tares and the wheat.
在第一版出版十年后，再看这本书，我认为它回答了三个问题，其中第一个问题是，去麻省理工学院到底是什么样的？
Looking at the book ten years after its first edition, I see it as answering three questions, the first of which is, What is it really like to go to MIT?
第二，学会思考是什么意思？我遇到的第一位教授告诉我，我在那里学到了什么并不重要，但麻省理工学院会教我“如何思考”。日积月累形成工程师的小步骤是什么？工程师如何学习解决问题？在此过程中他或她如何维持人际关系和友谊？
Second, What does it mean to learn to think? The first professor I met told me that it didn't really matter what I learned there, but that MIT would teach me "how to think." What are the small steps that cumulatively form an engineer? How does an engineer learn to solve problems? How does he or she maintain relationships and friendships during the process?
最后，机械思维的局限性是什么？它会导致孤立、孤独、倦怠和不充实的生活吗？它能为宗教、励志、精神留下空间吗？
Finally, What are the limits of mechanistic thinking? Does it lead to isolation, loneliness, burnout, and an unfulfilling life? Can it leave room for the religious, the inspirational, the spiritual?
第三个问题在过去的半个世纪里得到了广泛的讨论。辛诺特演讲几年后，CP斯诺在剑桥大学发表了题为“两种文化”的演讲。20世纪50年代，当麻省理工学院开始努力架起两种文化的桥梁时，据报道阿德莱·史蒂文森曾表示，麻省理工学院试图将科学家人性化，而哈佛大学则试图将人文主义者西蒙化。（对于年轻的读者，我赶紧解释一下“Simonize”是一项清洁和抛光汽车的服务。）就在 2000 年 10 月 21 日，《波士顿环球报》头版刊登了一篇题为“将技术人员转变为人文主义者”的文章，副标题为“学校塑造了整个工程师。”
This third question has been much discussed in the last halfcentury. Several years after the Sinnott address, C. P. Snow delivered a lecture entitled "The Two Cultures" at the University of Cambridge. In the 1950s, when MIT was embarking on an early effort to bridge the two cultures, Adlai Stevenson is reported to have said that MIT was trying to humanize the scientists, while Harvard was trying to Simonize the humanists. (For younger readers I hasten to explain that "Simonize" was a service that cleaned and polished cars.) As recently as October 21, 2000, the Boston Globe had a front page article entitled "Turning techs into humanists," with the subhead "Schools shaping the whole engineer."
1981 年至 1984 年间，我在麻省理工学院工作。1984 年春天，我每周安排与《技术评论》前编辑约翰·马蒂尔 (John Mattill) 会面，撰写了本书的初稿，当时大部分经历仍记忆犹新。1989 年夏天，它与达顿签订了合同，并于 1991 年秋天首次出版。
I was at MIT between 1981 and 1984. I wrote a first draft of the book by scheduling weekly meetings with John Mattill, former editor of Technology Review, during the spring of 1984, while much of the experience was still fresh in my memory. In the summer of 1989 it went under contract with Dutton, and it was first published in the fall of 1991.
这些事件发生在近 20 年前，但每当我在报纸上读到一篇有关麻省理工学院的文章时，我都会对自己说“那在我的书中”。我遇到并写下了酗酒、新生宿舍空间不足、女性待遇不佳、自杀等问题。该研究所已尝试纠正这些问题。它的一些努力可能已经取得了成功。
The events occurred nearly 20 years ago, but whenever I read an article in the newspaper about MIT, I say to myself "that's in my book." I encountered and wrote about binge drinking, the lack of sufficient dorm space for freshmen, the poor treatment of women, suicide. The Institute has tried to correct these problems. And it may have been successful in some of its efforts.
1996 年春天，当我对麻省理工学院的一群本科生进行演讲时，他们中的许多人表示，他们认为这段经历并不像我在书中描述的那么艰难。这可能意味着该研究所因这本书而发生了一些变化。
When I gave a talk to a class of MIT undergrads in the spring of 1996, many of them said that they didn't think the experience was as hard as I had described in the book. Which may mean that the Institute has changed somewhat because of the book.
但正如本书的一位人物所说，“麻省理工学院是我必须杀死的一条龙。” 麻省理工学院数百英亩的校园里聚集着世界上一万名最聪明、最勤奋的人，他们由 1000 名更聪明的教授驱动。使研究所成为一个更友善、更温和的地方的敏感而柔软的东西必然总是让位于发明、发现和成为高技能的真正业务。
But as one of this book's characters says, "MIT is a dragon I have to slay." Ten thousand of the smartest, hardest-working people in the world are placed together within the several hundred acres of the MIT campus, and they are driven by 1,000 even smarter professors. The touchy-feely soft stuff of making the Institute a kinder gentler place will of necessity always take a back seat to the real business of inventing, discovering, and becoming highly skilled.
我在麻省理工学院失去了一位自杀的朋友。当我的第一个想法是死亡的流体力学时，我嘲笑对此类灾难的过度技术态度。然而，麻省理工学院的创新杂志写道，“对这些数字（最近的自杀数据）进行公正的统计分析”，你会发现这只是一种随机波动，就像棒球击球手的低迷或连胜一样。告诉父母、兄弟、姐妹、男朋友、女朋友、丈夫、妻子、室友、室友。我在飞机上遇到的人类学家休·古斯特森（Hugh Gusterson）在俄克拉荷马城爆炸案发生当天就在劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室。他说，武器科学家们听到这个消息后，立即拿出计算器，忙着估算炸弹的爆炸能量。
I lost a friend to suicide at MIT. I mock the over-techie attitude toward such calamities, when my first thought is the fluid mechanics of the decease. Yet MIT's magazine of innovation writes, "take a fair, statistical look at these numbers [recent suicide data]" and you find that it's just a random fluctuation, like a baseball batter's slump or streak. Tell that to the parents, the brothers, the sisters, the boyfriends, the girlfriends, the husbands, the wives, the roommates, the hallmates. Hugh Gusterson, an anthropologist whom I met on an airplane and who was at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the day of the Oklahoma City bombing, said that the weapons scientists, on hearing the news, immediately pulled out their calculators and busied themselves with estimating the explosive energy of the bomb.
这本书还有另一个主题：在失败中生存。该学院一万名学生中的许多人经常失败。本科生不及格，或者没有达到研究生院录取的成绩。研究生没有完成他或她的学位。一位新近获得博士学位的人。没有获得博士后或助理教授职位。助理教授不晋升。麻省理工学院和其他类似的地方必须维持他们的标准，但他们在这样做时如何才能更加人性化呢？
There is another theme of the book: surviving failure. Many of the Institute's ten thousand students fail on a regular basis. An undergraduate flunks out, or doesn't have the grades to be admitted to graduate school. A graduate student doesn't complete his or her degree. A newly minted Ph.D. doesn't get the postdoc or assistant professorship. The assistant professor is not promoted. MIT and other places like it have to maintain their standards, but how can they be more humane while doing that?
几年前，我遇到一个刚刚被数学研究生项目开除的孩子。他被压垮了；他根本没有学位。他和麻省理工学院的其他人可能会花很多时间浪费时间认为自己不够好，而塔夫茨大学可能会任命他们为院长。这些人的悲伤咨询在哪里？正如《完整的男人》中查理·克罗克被抛弃的妻子玛莎所说，“你变得隐形了。”
Several years ago I met a kid who had just been kicked out of the mathematics graduate program. He was crushed; he had no degree at all. He and others at MIT may spend a lot of their lives wasting time thinking they're just not good enough, when Tufts would probably make them deans. Where's the grief counseling for these people? As Martha, Charlie Croker's cast-off wife in A Man in Full says, "you become invisible."
如果你作为读者在麻省理工学院或类似的地方遇到危机，请考虑选择休假、转学到另一所学校、在杂货店工作一段时间等等。事情会变得更好。在约翰·霍普金斯大学第 20 次聚会期间，我与一位一年级的同学交谈，他在二年级、三年级和四年级时转学到了一所名气稍差的学校。我从来不知道那次转会的情况如何，但他现在正在享受美好的职业生涯。
If you the reader are in a crisis at MIT or a similar place, consider the option of taking time off, transferring to another school, working at a grocery store for a while, whatever. Things will get better. During my 20th reunion at Johns Hopkins, I spoke with a classmate from freshman year who transferred to a slightly less prestigious school for his sophomore, junior, and senior years. I've never found out what the circumstances of that transfer were, but he is now enjoying a wonderful career.
在冰暴期间未能登顶珠穆朗玛峰并不丢脸。
There is no shame in not summitting Mount Everest during an ice storm.
关于这本书本身的一些注释。它主要是非小说类作品，因为其中发生的大部分内容都是基于我作为麻省理工学院研究生的经历的最佳回忆。然而，我没有连接声音，也没有拍摄本文描述的所有位置的照片。因此，例如，在 Mikic 教授的椅子上成堆描述的期刊文章实际上可能是在 Rohsenow 教授的椅子上或其他人的椅子上。
A few notes about the book itself. It is primarily nonfiction, since most of what happens in it is based on my best recollections of experiences I had as a graduate student at MIT. However, I was not wired for sound and I did not take photographs of all the locations described herein. Thus for example the journal articles described in piles on Professor Mikic's chairs may have been, in fact, on Professor Rohsenow's chairs or on someone else's chairs.
麻省理工学院主要教授的名字被保留下来，既是为了对他们在我参加的讲座中所做的工作给予应有的认可，也是为了展示真实研究所中的真实人物。这些人物的对话或讲座材料通常包含在引号中。然而，这本书是在八年后写的，我现在的文字是基于我的记忆和/或当时做的笔记。如果我的记忆有问题，我深表歉意。那些使用真名的人都包含在本书的索引中。
Names of key MIT professors have been retained, both to give due credit to the work they presented in the lectures I attended, and to present real people in the real Institute. Dialogue or lecture material for these characters is often included in quotation marks. However, the book was written eight years after the fact, and the words I present are based on my memory and/or notes I took at the time. If my memory is at fault, I apologize. Those people whose real names are used are included in the book's index.
所有其他字符都是复合字符；名字和身体特征已被更改，并且这些角色的一些场景纯属虚构。然而，即使是虚构的场景也是基于真实的经历。
All other characters are composites; the names and physical characteristics have been changed, and a few of the scenes with these characters are purely fictitious. However, even the fictitious scenes are based on real experiences.
第 21 章是本版的新增内容。所有其他文本均与原始版本中的内容完全相同，但有一些更正。正文包括要解决的技术问题的一般意义以及我的解决方法；章节注释包括对技术材料的更多讨论。
Chapter 21 is new to this edition. All other text is exactly as it appeared in the original edition, with a few corrections. The main text includes the general sense of the technical problems to be solved and my approaches to them; the Chapter Notes include more discussion of the technical material.
当我看到一张 20 世纪 50 年代麻省理工学院的印刷品时，我想到了这本书的书名。景色是向北看的，经过 20 号楼和游泳池。背景是几栋红砖厂房。该印刷品的标题是“麻省理工学院和工厂”，由麻省理工学院的技术人员 Fred Roseberry 制作。“就是这样，”我想。麻省理工学院是一个工厂，一个创意工厂，一个创意工厂。
The book's title came to me when I saw a print of what MIT looked like in the 1950s. The view was looking north, past Building 20 and the swimming pool. In the background were several red brick factory buildings. The title of the print was "MIT and Factories," and it was produced by Fred Roseberry, an MIT technician. "That's it," I thought. MIT is a factory, a factory for ideas, an idea factory.
麻省理工学院的另类学生报纸《The Thistle》对本书的评论指出，“创意工厂”一词是在二战后创造的。这就是战后研究型大学应该成为的样子：一所附近有附属工业的大学。就像斯坦福大学和硅谷一样。或者麻省理工学院和肯德尔广场/128 号公路。
The review of this book in The Thistle, MIT's alternative student newspaper, noted that the term "idea factory" had been coined after World War II. It was what the postwar research university should be: a university with affiliated industry nearby. As in Stanford and Silicon Valley. Or MIT and Kendall Square/Route 128.
我很高兴我去了麻省理工学院。我在那里学到的严谨对我很有帮助。我花了一些时间与伟人为伴。麻省理工学院确实让我变得更聪明——这意味着任何人都可以通过学习思考而变得更聪明。
I'm glad I went to MIT. The rigor I learned there has served me well. I spent some time in the company of greatness. And MIT really did make me smarter-which means that anyone can become smarter, by learning to think.
对于每个去麻省理工学院的人来说，这是一个不同的地方。但不变量是存在的，我希望我在接下来的内容中发现了更多的不变量。
MIT is a different place for everyone who goes there. But there exist invariants, and I hope I've hit on more than a few in what follows.
序幕
Prologue
比利时
Belgium
1981 年 5 月 9 日，星期六
Saturday, May 9, 1981
我口袋里的信已经湿透，皱巴巴的。我刚在想。
The letter was getting wet and wrinkled in my pocket. I was thinking.
离开斯蒂芬妮；去麻省理工学院。与斯蒂芬妮结婚；留在比利时。把海洋放在我和斯蒂芬妮之间；去麻省理工学院。稍后与斯蒂芬妮结婚；去麻省理工学院。
Leave Stephanie; go to MIT. Marry Stephanie; stay in Belgium. Put ocean between me and Stephanie; go to MIT. Marry Stephanie later; go to MIT.
“亲爱的怀特先生，”信中写道。“我们还没有收到您的消息，想知道我们是否应该在明年秋季的技术和政策计划小组中为您保留一个位置。请在您方便的时候尽早告知我们您的决定。”
"Dear Mr. White," the letter said. "We have not yet heard from you and would like to know if we should reserve a place for you in next fall's group for the Technology and Policy Program. Please let us know your decision at your earliest convenience."
这是他们的第一封信，但毫无意义。当你被录取时，你通常会收到一份包含住房和保险表格的大包裹。和资金。
This was their first letter and it didn't make sense. When you're accepted, you usually get a fat package with forms for housing and insurance. And funding.
今晚流行问题；周一致电麻省理工学院。
Pop question tonight; call MIT Monday.
1794 年，农民们受够了，在法国大革命期间，他们烧毁了修道院，除了烟囱和现在在树林中休眠的柱子。剥开后，烟囱会聚在一起，长满青苔的灰色石头向上慢慢变窄。
The peasants had had enough in 1794 and, during the French Revolution, they burned the abbey, all except the chimney and the columns now dormant amidst the trees. Peeled open, the chimney converged, the moss-covered gray stone narrowing gently upward.
它看起来就像一个竖立的风洞，就像冯卡门流体动力学研究所的风洞一样，这是布鲁塞尔以南的北约中心，过去八个月我一直在那里学习。我想知道是哪个和尚想出了通过收敛来改善烟囱通风的想法。
It looked like a wind-tunnel stood on its end, like the wind tunnels at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, the NATO center just south of Brussels where I'd been studying for the previous eight months. I wondered which monk had come up with the idea that the chimney's draft would be improved by the convergence.
该修道院名为 Villers-la-Ville（位于热纳普以南 5 公里处 [滑铁卢以南 12 公里（布鲁塞尔以南 14 公里）]），其历史可追溯至十二世纪。导游经过烟囱，指着废弃食堂墙上的长方形石头通道。“那你认为这是做什么用的？”他用法语问道。
The abbey, named Villers-la-Ville (five kilometers south of Genappe [twelve kilometers south of Waterloo (fourteen kilometers south of Brussels)]), dated from the twelfth century. The guide passed the chimney and pointed to the rectangular stone passage in the wall of the ruined refectory. "And what," he asked in French, "do you think this was for?"
我回答说：“在烟雾进入烟囱之前用它来加热房间。”
I answered, "To heat the room with the smoke before it went to the chimney."
“啊，哦，呃，”他回答道，“先生一定是个工程师。”
"Ah, oui, eh," he replied, "Monsieur must be un ingenieur."
那天晚上，在布鲁塞尔路易斯广场附近的罗宾汉餐厅里，斯蒂芬妮坐在我对面。
Stephanie sat across from me that night in the Robin Hood Restaurant near Brussels's Place Louise.
“哦，”当我告诉她麻省理工学院录取了我时，她说，“我为你感到高兴。” 但她孩子般的棕色眼睛里的表情很悲伤，就像约翰·列侬去世时让我爱上她的悲伤一样。
"Oh," she said when I told her MIT had accepted me, "I'm very happy for you." But the look in her childlike brown eyes was sad, sad the same way that had made me fall in love with her when John Lennon died.
我无法伤她的心。
I couldn't break her heart.
“你是想让我结婚吗？” 我用法语问她。
"Is it that you would like me to marry?" I asked her in French.
她说：“那是‘你愿意嫁给我吗？’ “我帮助她学习英语；她帮助我学习法语。
She said, "That's 'Would you like to marry yourself with me?' " I helped her with her English; she helped me with my French.
“好吧。你愿意嫁给我吗？”
"OK. Would you like to marry yourself with me?"
“哎哟。”
"Oui."
噢，我的上帝，这是什么？
Oh mon Dieu, qu'est ce que j'ai fait?
5 月 11 日星期一
Monday, May 11
“请保持通话，”国际接线员说道。
"Hold the line please," the international operator said.
“你好，TPP，”这位女士欢快的声音从 4,000 英里外传来。
"Hello, TPP," said the woman's cheery voice from 4,000 miles away.
“呃，是的，”我说。“我是佩珀·怀特打来电话，询问你寄给我的那封信。”
"Uh, yeah," I said. "This is Pepper White calling about the letter you sent me."
“哦，天哪，”她说。“我不知道该怎么告诉你，但我们在这里犯了一个很大的错误。你的文件被错误地放入了延期录取文件柜中，而它本应该放在延期申请文件中。所以你是并没有真正承认。”
"Oh, gee," she said. "I don't know how to tell you this, but we made a big mistake here. Your file was put in the deferred acceptances filing cabinet by mistake, and it was supposed to be put in the deferred applications file. So you're not really admitted."
“也就是说我被拒绝了？”
"Does that mean I'm rejected?"
“不，这意味着你的文件不完整。你还需要两封推荐信。”
"No, it means your file isn't complete. You need two more letters of recommendation."
“我会看看我能做什么。”
"I'll see what I can do."
布鲁塞尔机场
Brussels Airport
1981 年 8 月 29 日
August 29, 1981
“我也爱你……一定要写……我会在圣诞节见到你……我会想念你的……”
"I love you, too.... Be sure to write.... I'll see you at Christmas. ... I'll miss you...."
同一天，科德角上方
Above Cape Cod, Same Day
飞行员开始下降太晚了。飞机急剧向下坠落。
The pilot started the descent too late. Steeply downward the plane dropped.
我想闯进驾驶舱，叫醒飞行员，然后说：“把操纵杆拉回来，你这个白痴；把操纵杆拉回来！”
I wanted to break into the cockpit, wake up the pilot, and say, "Pull back on the stick, you idiot; pull back on the stick!"
章节
C H A P T E R
1
1
登录中
Logging On
1981 年 8 月 31 日星期一
Monday, August 31, 1981
我从肯德尔广场地铁站爬上楼梯，绕过拐角进入艾姆斯街，开始感觉到我的胃里打着结。也许我最终应该留在比利时。街道的右侧是一座古老的灰色工厂，左侧是一座功能单调的红砖建筑。工厂的窗户半开着，压缩空气发出嘶嘶声，机器在金属上打孔的声音很大。
I climbed the stairs from the Kendall Square subway stop, rounded the corner onto Ames Street, and began to feel the knot being tied in my stomach. Maybe I should have stayed in Belgium after all. The street was bounded by an old gray factory on the right and a drably functional red brick building on the left. The factory windows were half-open, and compressed air hissed and machines loudly punched holes in metal.
我记得达罗莎夫人给我高中课上放映的麻省理工学院的物理电影中的休谟先生和艾德先生。她拒绝给我写一封去麻省理工学院上大学的推荐信，理由是那不是人类。等等，她说，去一所不错的文理学院读大学。努力工作，取得好成绩，如果你还想的话，就去麻省理工学院读研究生。
I remembered Mr. Hume and Mr. Ide in the physics movies from MIT that Mrs. DaRosa had shown my high school class. She had refused to write me a recommendation to MIT for college on the grounds that it wasn't human. Wait, she said, and go to a nice liberal arts school for college. Work hard, get good grades, and if you still want to, go to MIT for graduate school.
我去了约翰霍普金斯大学。在那里，我主修环境工程，同时学习艺术史、法国、意大利、美国电影。我参加了大旅行。前六个月是在米兰及其周边地区度过的，然后是在冯卡门研究所度过的一年。我感到休息了，仿佛我生命中广阔的篇章已经完成。现在是时候集中精力工作了。
I went to Johns Hopkins. There, as I majored in environmental engineering, I studied art history, French, Italian, American cinema. I went on the Grand Tour. First six months in Milan and the environs, then my year at the von Karman Institute. I felt rested, as if the broadening chapter of my life had been completed. Now it was time to focus and to work.
我在工厂后面右转，穿过它和那座不太单调的米色混凝土和玻璃建筑之间。更远的地方是包豪斯风格的游泳池和二战时期的临时建筑。我感到幽闭恐惧症，但又受到保护。比利时修道院的窗户也朝内。修道院为受过专门训练的精英们提供了安静反思的时间和空间。我将成为当今的精英之一：知识分子的一员。
I turned right after the factory and went between it and the not-quite-as-drab beige concrete and glass building that came to a point. Farther along were the Bauhaus-style box of a swimming pool and temporary World War II buildings. I felt claustrophobic and yet protected. The windows at the Belgian monastery had faced inward also. The monastery had provided time and space for quiet reflection by a devotedly trained elite. I would become one of that present elite: a member of the intelligentsia.
我第一次听说麻省理工学院是在北卡罗来纳州达勒姆杜克大学的阴影下长大的。出差回家后，父亲给我带来了《伟大的麻省理工学院纸飞机书》，我最喜欢的是那本看起来像一架小直升机，当我放开它时，它会旋转到地面。当我十一岁时，我的母亲（钢琴家）、父亲、三个姐姐和我搬到了华盛顿特区，他在美国国家科学院找到了一份科普作家的工作。
I first heard of MIT growing up in the shadow of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Coming home from a business trip, my father brought me The Great MIT Paper Airplane Bookmy favorite was the one that looked like a little helicopter and twirled down to the ground when I let it go. When I was eleven, my mother (a pianist), my father, my three older sisters, and I moved to Washington, D.C. He'd taken a job as a science writer with the National Academy of Sciences.
那是第一个地球日（1971 年，我十三岁）激发了我对环境的兴趣。这种兴趣一直处于休眠状态，直到我试图弄清楚在哪里申请大学时，我发现约翰·霍普金斯大学提供了环境工程学位。我从那个系开始，跳到物理学，再跳回来，并对节能产生了兴趣，以此作为帮助环境的一种方式。麻省理工学院的技术与政策计划（TPP）为解决此类问题提供了通才的方法；他们接受了我，我就在这里。
It was the first Earth Day (in 1971, I was thirteen) that sparked my interest in the environment. That interest lay dormant until I was trying to figure out where to apply for college and I saw that Johns Hopkins offered an Environmental Engineering degree. I started in that department, jumped over to physics, jumped back, and became interested in energy conservation as a way to help the environment. MIT's Technology and Policy Program (TPP) offered a generalist's approach to that type of issue; they accepted me and here I was.
在毗邻回廊的混凝土和沥青之间的一小块草地上，后备军官训练队进行了早晨的开合跳训练。
On a small patch of grass between concrete and asphalt in the adjoining cloister an ROTC squad did their morning jumping jacks.
停下来！”领导命令道。
And halt!" the leader ordered.
“我们有动力吗？” 他喊道。
"Are we MOtivated?" he shouted.
“是的先生！” 他们呼吸很大。
"Yes, sir!" they breathed loudly.
“我们真的有动力吗？” 他问。
"Are we Extreeeeeernly motivated?" he asked.
“是的先生！” 他们又呼吸了。
"Yes, sir!" they breathed again.
“降了20。”
"Down for 20."
我钦佩他们的强度。我想知道我是否能够匹配它。
I admired their intensity. I wondered whether I'd ever be able to match it.
“这是来自麻省理工学院的怀特博士，”我想象我的客户介绍我。“他很贵，但他很好……而且速度很快。”
"This is Doctor White from MIT," I imagined my clients introducing me. "He's expensive, but he's good ... and he's fast."
我问指挥官怎么去 TPP 办公室，1-138。
I asked the commander how to get to the TPP office, 1-138.
“在上面的那栋楼左转，那就是 13 号楼；然后返回无限走廊，右转进入 6 号楼。从 7 号楼大厅左转第二个就是 1 号楼；1-138 应该在去查尔斯酒店的中间位置。安逸！” 他说得很快，就好像他的舌头跟不上他的大脑一样。我想象在四分之一英里内有成千上万像他一样的人。
"Turn left at that building up there-that's Building 13; then go back up to the infinite corridor and turn right into Building 6. Your second left from Building 7 lobby is Building 1; 1-138 should be about halfway to the Charles. At ease!" He spoke quickly, as if his tongue could not quite keep up with his brain. I imagined thousands like him within a quarter-mile.
“无限走廊是什么？” 我问。
"What's the infinite corridor?" I asked.
“它连接着所有的主要建筑，两端都有玻璃门，长约319步。11月12日和1月31日，阳光从一端直接照射到另一端。”
"It links all the main buildings, has glass doors on either end, and is about 319 paces long. On November 12 and January 31 the sun shines directly from one end of it to the other."
我发现了无限长的走廊，尽管还没有放学，行人的巡航速度也只是慢跑而已。所有的目光都注视着前方。有些人向朋友或熟人点点头，但没有人停下来聊天。
I found the infinite corridor and even though school was not yet in session the pedestrian cruising speed was just short of a jog. All eyes were fixed forward. Some nodded to friends or acquaintances but none stopped to chat.
我肚子里的结被拉了一下。当我还是个孩子，等待公共汽车送我去日营的第一天时，同样的空洞的恐惧也曾困扰着我。
There was a tug on the knot in my stomach. It was the same empty terror that had gripped me as a child waiting for the bus to take me to the first day of day camp.
我有几分钟的时间可以消磨，所以我从一边走到另一边，欣赏过去麻省理工学院伟人的表演。万尼瓦尔·布什（Vannevar Bush），计算机之父。诺伯特·维纳 (Norbert Wiener)，十一岁高中毕业生，另一位计算机之父和飞机自动驾驶仪等控制设备的现代理论之父。卡尔·泰勒·康普顿（Karl Taylor Compton）是本世纪初著名的物理学家，也是麻省理工学院的校长。所有已故伟大大师的老黑白眼中都闪烁着智慧。
I had a few minutes to kill, so I wandered from side to side, admiring the displays of past MIT greats. Vannevar Bush, a father of computers. Norbert Wiener, high school graduate at eleven, another father of computers and of modem theory of controlling devices like airplane automatic pilots. Karl Taylor Compton, noted physicist from earlier in the century, who was also president of MIT. Intelligence sparkled through the eyes of all the old blackand-whites of the late great masters.
这些展示必须旨在激励当代人努力工作，效仿他们的祖先。但这些墙似乎告诉我的第一件事是“无论你多么努力工作，你永远不会像这些巨人一样。他们不仅除了工作什么也不做；他们很有天赋。”
The displays must be meant to inspire the present generation to work hard, to emulate their ancestors. But the first thing these walls seemed to tell me was "No matter how hard you work, you'll never be like these giants. Not only did they do nothing but work; they were gifted."
外面非常潮湿，基利安庭院里的树木郁郁葱葱。海绵在沉重的空气中蒸发。8点30分，我独自一人在技术和政策办公室附近等待。
Outside it was heavily humid, the trees in Killian Court lushly green. Sponges transpiring into the heavy air. I waited near the Technology and Policy Office, alone at 8:30.
里面又冷又黑。我透过走廊的窗户，越过查尔斯河，看到后湾的天际线。
It was cool and dark inside. I looked through the corridor window across the Charles to the skyline of Back Bay.
几分钟后，布朗大学的一个叫吉姆·斯图尔特的人来了。他是来挑选桌子的。办公桌相当于麻省理工学院的图书馆书架，是您可以安全存放书籍的家外之家。和我一样，吉姆也在那里排队申请资金。如果你没有资金，至少你应该有一张桌子。我的第一个朋友。
After a few minutes, a guy from Brown named Jim Stuart arrived. He was there to get the pick of the desks. An office desk is the MIT equivalent of a library carrel, a home away from home where you can securely keep your books. Like me, Jim was also there to get in line for funding. If you don't have funding at least you should have a desk. My first friend.
“你在霍普金斯大学学的是什么专业？” 他问。
"What was your major at Hopkins?" he asked.
“环境工程，”我说。“你知道，废水处理、垃圾填埋场、污染控制。你呢？你学什么专业的？”
"Environmental engineering," I said. "You know, wastewater treatment, landfills, pollution control. How about you? What'd you major in?"
“环境科学。类似的问题，但可能有更多的化学成分。”
"Environmental sciences. Sort of the same kind of issues, but maybe with a little more chemistry."
他能言善辩，眼神里有常春藤盟校的洞察力。他选择了 TPP，而不是另一个官僚训练场哈佛大学肯尼迪学院。当我们交谈时，我开始怀疑我们是否都被“机场人”理查德·德·诺夫维尔教授的利他主义所欺骗，他用于优化机场飞机交通流量的计算机程序使他的名声足够大，以至于他可以启动一项培训人们双语的计划：说技术语言和说英语。
He was articulate and had an Ivy League knowing look in his eyes. He'd picked TPP over Harvard's Kennedy School, another training ground for bureaucrats. As we talked, I began to wonder whether we had both been duped by the altruism of Professor Richard de Neufville, the "airport guy," whose computer programs for optimizing the flow of airplane traffic at airports had made his name big enough that he could start a program to train people to be bilingual: to speak the language of technology and to speak English.
我想知道我们是否被愚弄到了一个仅在纸面上看起来不错的程序。但是，根据宣传册，毕业生们在智囊团和高级咨询公司担任了令人印象深刻的职位，他们是“与众不同的工程师”。
I wondered whether we'd been fooled into a program that looked good only on paper. But, according to the brochure, the graduates went on to impressive positions at think tanks and highpowered consulting firms, and they were "engineers with a difference."
凯伦·史密斯从大洋彼岸传来欢快的声音，打开了办公室的锁。新英格兰的生活压低了她的南方口音，但并没有削弱她的魅力。
Karen Smith, the cheery voice from across the ocean, unlocked the office. Life in New England had flattened and compressed her southern accent but not her charm.
“所以我想你们都需要学生办公室的钥匙，”她说。“在 20 号楼就结束了；穿过 13 号楼，右转，然后到 26 号楼下面。这是一张剩余桌子的图表。”
"So I guess y'all need keys to the student office," she said. "It's over in Building 20; you go through Building 13, take a right, and go under Building 26. Here's a chart of the desks that are left."
在图表上的 20 个桌子中，只有大约 5 个无人认领，有 15 个人参与了该计划。吉姆和我早到已经做得很好了。
Of the twenty desks on the chart, only about 5 were unclaimed, and there were fifteen people entering the program. Jim and I had done well to be early.
“德·诺夫维尔教授今天在吗？” 吉姆问道。“我想和他谈谈资金问题。”
"Is Professor de Neufville in today?" Jim asked. "I wanted to talk to him about funding."
“是的，我也愿意，”我说。
"Yeah, I'd like to, too," I said.
她回答说：“他今年休假。但这里有一个项目清单。你也可以和斯隆管理学院或基础工程部门的人交谈。”
She answered, "He's on sabbatical for the year. But here's a list of projects. You can also talk to people at the Sloan School of Management or in your base engineering department."
每个技术和政策专业的学生都必须隶属于一个工程系。我的专业是机械工程。我想加强我的流体力学和环境背景。此外，我想凭借麻省理工学院的学位，从强有力的角度来讨论环境和能源问题。
Each technology and policy student had to be affiliated with an engineering department. My affiliation was with mechanical engineering; I wanted to strengthen my fluid mechanics and environmental background. Also, I wanted to argue environmental and energy issues from a position of strength, with a degree from MIT.
“哦，我差点忘了，”凯伦说。“开学前你要参加三场考试。写作考试在周四；不修本科课程的研究生经济学课程资格考试在下周二；游泳考试你可以随时参加。没有人不知道如何游泳也能获得麻省理工学院的学位。这是你的课程目录。”
"Oh, I almost forgot," Karen said. "You'll have three tests before the term begins. The writing test is on Thursday; the test to qualify for the graduate economics course without taking an undergraduate course is next Tuesday; and you can take the swimming test whenever you want. No one can get a degree from MIT without knowing how to swim. And here're your course catalogs."
吉姆和我走回 20 号楼，那是游泳池对面的二战临时建筑。三层楼，灰色，军用。TPP学生办公室在三楼。
Jim and I walked back to Building 20, the World War II temporary building opposite the swimming pool. Three stories, gray, military. The TPP student office was on the third floor.
它有橙色的地毯、米色的墙壁和棕色的沙发。管道裸露；灯是荧光灯。角落里有一个电炉和一台冰箱。这就是家。
It had orange carpet, beige walls, and a brown couch. Pipes were exposed; lights were fluorescent. There were a hot plate and a refrigerator in the corner. This was home.
当我们走进去时，那个印度长相的家伙正在打电话，结束了谈话并做了自我介绍。
The Indian-looking guy talking on the phone when we walked in finished his conversation and introduced himself.
“我叫阿姆里特，你叫什么名字？”
"My name's Amrit; what's yours?"
吉姆和我分别告诉了他，当吉姆在寻找空闲办公桌时，我继续与阿姆里特交谈。
Jim and I each told him and while Jim was scoping out the free desks, I continued to talk to Amrit.
“你来这里学什么？” 阿姆利特问道。
"What are you here to study?" Amrit asked.
“节约能源。我想研究能源系统，以帮助对抗温室效应。”
"Energy conservation. I want to work on energy systems to help combat the greenhouse effect."
“哦，是的，”他说。“我也在研究能源。我刚刚为我的祖国巴基斯坦完成了一个能源模型。我喜欢能源。能源很容易。”
"Oh yes," he said. "I'm working on energy, too. I've just finished an energy model for my home country of Pakistan. I like energy. Energy is easy."
是的，我想。什么是模型？我不能问他，因为我不想让自己听起来很愚蠢。他的说话方式表明他很聪明，但令我不安的是他认为能量很容易。我来这里不是为了学习废话；我来学习严谨，学习如何通过良好的工程和经济分析来节省能源。阿姆里特很友好，但我忍不住想，如果他想做简单的事情，他会在日内瓦或纽约的联合国找到一份轻松的工作，不为他的国家做任何事，并依靠他麻省理工学院的证书。
Right, I thought. What's a model? I couldn't ask him because I didn't want to sound dumb. His way of speaking indicated that he was bright, but it disturbed me that he thought that energy was easy. I didn't come here to learn fluff; I came to learn rigor, to learn how to save energy through good engineering and economic analysis. Amrit was friendly, but I couldn't help thinking that if he wanted to work on easy things he would land a cushy job at the UN in Geneva or New York, doing nothing for his country and riding on the coattails of his MIT credential.
吉姆找到了一个靠窗的座位，我则选了离电话最近的一个。很快就到了微笑并拨打电话寻求资金的时候了。
Jim found a window seat, and I picked the one nearest the phone. It would soon be time to smile and dial for funding.
但首先浏览一下课程目录。它和波士顿电话簿一样厚。我翻阅了一下，找到了令我感兴趣的有关 TPP 的部分。“技术和政策计划培养‘与众不同的工程师’。” 通过对工程、经济学、系统分析和监管政策的广泛学习，毕业生将能够在技术和政策环境中发挥作用。” 两年前这听起来很棒，但令我困扰的是它的项目没有任何资金。真正的工程部门可以向财富 500 强公司或各个政府机构寻求资金。但由于没有综合事务部，TPP 几乎没有什么门可以敲。如果没有人资助研究生研究，那么当我完成研究后谁会资助我的薪水？此外，冯卡门研究所让我开始了一个硬核方向；TPP可能太软了。我向阿姆里特寻求建议。
But first a look through the course catalog. It was as thick as the Boston phone book. I thumbed through it and found the section that had appealed to me about TPP. "The Technology and Policy Program produces 'engineers with a difference.' Through study of a broad mix of engineering, economics, systems analysis, and regulatory policy, graduates will be able to function in the technological and policy environments." It had sounded great two years back, but it bothered me that there wasn't any funding for its projects. Real engineering departments could solicit funding from Fortune 500 companies or from various government agencies. But there was no Department of Generalities, so TPP had few doors to knock on. If there wasn't anyone to fund graduate research, who would fund my paycheck when I finished? Besides, the von Karman Institute had started me in a hard-core direction; TPP might be too soft. I asked Amrit for advice.
“那么，TPP 培养的工程师真的是与众不同吗？” 我问他（过去式。
"So is it true that TPP produces engineers with a difference?" I asked him.
“是的，”他说。“区别在于他们找不到工作。” 我的疑虑越来越强烈。我继续翻阅目录。
"Yes," he said. "The difference is that they can't get jobs." My doubts were intensifying. I continued to look through the catalog.
与 7-11 一样，麻省理工学院也有选择的自由。院系规定了你必须选修的课程数量，但你选修的课程由你、你的导师和院系研究生导师共同决定。
As at Seven-Eleven, there is freedom of choice at MIT. The departments specify the number of courses you have to take, but which you take is between you, your adviser, and the department graduate adviser.
麻省理工学院的每个系都有一个编号，每门课程也是如此。它可以帮助您找到目录中的方式。机械工程是“课程 2”。子学科由下一个数字表示。流体力学是20系列，热力学是40系列，传热学是50系列。我注意到了潜在的课程。
Every MIT department has a number, as does every course. It helps you find your way through the catalog. Mechanical Engineering is "Course 2." The subdisciplines are signified by the next digit. Fluid mechanics is the 20 series, thermodynamics the 40 series, and heat transfer the 50 series. I noted potential courses.
2.25 高级流体力学（A. Shapiro、K. Gemayel）。“研究流体动力学的主要概念和方法。静力学。连续流体的连续性、动量和能量关系。涡度动力学。循环。流体流动的动力学相似性。边界层理论，包括分离和剪切流现象的其他示例。简介湍流。阻力。升力。” 未来几个月的潜在隐喻。
2.25 Advanced Fluid Mechanics (A. Shapiro, K. Gemayel). "Surveys principal concepts and methods of fluid dynamics. Statics. Continuity, momentum, and energy relations for continuous fluids. Vorticity dynamics. Circulation. Dynamical similarity in fluid flows. Boundary layer theory, including separation and other examples of shear flow phenomena. Introduction to turbulence. Drag. Lift." Potential metaphors for the coming months.
2.451 一般热力学 I（先决条件：教师许可）（EP Gyftopoulos）。“热力学的一般基础适用于小型和大型系统，以及平衡和非平衡状态。状态、属性、功、能量、熵、热力学势以及功以外的相互作用（非功、热量、质量传递）的定义。属性的应用材料、整体流动、能量转换、化学平衡、燃烧和工业制造。” 我想，听起来这应该有助于我的节能技能。也许吉夫托普洛斯也有资金。我在它旁边加了一颗星星。
2.451 General Thermodynamics I (Prerequisite: Permission of Instructor) (E. P. Gyftopoulos). "General foundations of thermodynamics valid for small and large systems, and equilibrium and nonequilibrium states. Definitions of state, property, work, energy, entropy, thermodynamic potential, and interactions other than work (nonwork, heat, mass transfer). Applications to properties of materials, bulk flow, energy conversion, chemical equilibrium, combustion, and industrial manufacturing." Sounds like this one should help my energy conservation skills, I thought. Maybe Gyftopoulos has funding, too. I put a star by it.
2.55 高级传热（W. Rohsenow）。“发展受迫流和浮力驱动流中热量、动量和质量传递之间的相似性。涵盖传热的基本模式：扩散、内部和外部强制和自然对流、沸腾、冷凝和辐射传热。流动不稳定性和热量传递增强技术。将传热结果扩展到类似的对流传质过程。” 这可能有助于设计热交换器以回收化学过程中的废热，或设计太阳能集热器。我也给它加了一颗星。
2.55 Advanced Heat Transfer (W. Rohsenow). "Develops similarity between heat, momentum, and mass transfer in forced and buoyancy-driven flows. Covers fundamental modes of heat trans fer: diffusion, internal and external forced and natural convection, boiling, condensation, and radiative heat transfer. Flow instabilities and heat transfer augmentation techniques. Extends heat transfer results to analogous convective mass transfer processes." This could help in designing a heat exchanger to recycle waste heat from a chemical process, or in designing a solar collector. I put a star by it, too.
自从我划独木舟的时候起，我就对液体产生了兴趣，当时湖中央的波浪、风和雨看起来既混乱又有序。我想看看，感受一下秩序。我的第一次传热体验是小时候吃一个煮鸡蛋。煮了二十分钟后，我把水倒在上面。它冷却了一秒钟，然后再次加热。为什么？
Fluids had interested me since my canoe tripping days, when the waves and wind and rain in the middle of the lake seemed at once chaotic and orderly. I wanted to see, to feel the order. My first heat transfer experience was as a child with a hard-boiled egg. After it had boiled for twenty minutes, I poured water over it. It cooled down for a second, then heated up again. Why?
“我要去拿我的运动卡并参加游泳测试，”吉姆说。“你们两个都想来吗？”
"I'm gonna go get my athletic card and take the swimming test," Jim said. "Either of you guys want to come?"
“哦，是的，”阿姆利特说。“9点30分我要和我的朋友迪利普打一场壁球比赛。我很乐意和你一起走过去。”
"Oh, yes," Amrit said. "I've got a squash game with my friend Dilip at 9:30. I'd be happy to walk over there with you."
“我想我会在这里闲逛，”我说。“我想开始联系凯伦给我们的项目清单上的人。”
"I think I'll hang out here," I said. "I want to start contacting the people on the project list Karen gave us."
微笑并拨号。第一学期的学费为 3,700 美元。如果我要花六个学期（计算夏天）才能离开这里，而学费会上涨，比如说通货膨胀率加3个百分点，如果我找不到糖爹来支付我的学费，我会欠多少钱？哦，别忘了每年还有 5,000 美元左右的生活费。它不像医学院、商学院或法学院那样，当我离开这里时，我会赚到 6 万+，并且可以在一两年内还清所有债务。我以 15% 的利率向父母和三个朋友借了 1,000 美元，这已经是我愿意承担的债务了。
Smile and dial. Tuition for the first term is $3,700. If it takes me six terms counting summers to get out of here, and tuition goes up at, say the inflation rate plus 3 points, how much will I owe if I don't find some sugar daddy to pay my way through? Oh, and don't forget living expenses at another $5,000 or so a year. And it's not like med school or B school or law school where I'll be making 60K + when I get out of here and can pay off any debts in a year or two. The $1,000 I borrowed at 15 percent from my parents and each of three friends is as much debt as I ever want to bear.
灿烂的笑容。感觉那张嘴角延伸到脸上。深呼吸。拿起电话。
Big smile. Feel the corners of that mouth extend across the face. Deep breath. Pick up the phone.
“您好，米基奇教授在吗？”
"Hello, is Professor Mikic there?"
“那是米克式的，”电话那头的斯拉夫声音说道。“我能为你做什么？”
"That's Mick-ish," the Slavic voice on the other end said. "What can I do for you?"
“呃，我的名字是，呃，Pepper White，我在，呃，技术和政策计划中，我看到你，呃，有一个相变材料的研究项目。我想知道我是否，呃， ，可以过来和你谈谈这件事。” 我的膝盖在颤抖。
"Uh, my name is, uh, Pepper White, and I'm in the, uh, Technology and Policy Program, and I saw that you, uh, have a research project in phase change materials. I was wondering whether I, uh, could come and talk to you about it." My knees were shaking.
“你不想和我浪费时间，”他说。“我没有钱。”
"You don't want to waste your time with me," he said. "I don't have any money."
“也许我可以和你谈谈我的课程。我想我需要一些指导。”
"Maybe I could talk to you about my classes. I think I need some guidance."
“如你所愿。十一点怎么样？”
"As you wish. How's eleven o'clock?"
“听起来不错。谢谢你，先生。”
"That sounds fine. Thank you, sir."
呼叫第二号。“罗伯特·平代克教授，经济系（斯隆学院）。论文项目：全球石油定价的计算机建模。供需曲线的确定、计量经济数据的汇编和敏感性分析。半日制研究助理。”
Call number two. "Professor Robert Pyndike, Economics Department (Sloan School). Thesis project: Computer modeling of global oil pricing. Determination of supply and demand curves, compilation of econometric data, and sensitivity analysis. Half-time research assistantship."
听起来不错。也许我会这样做，然后以 10 万美元的价格为 OPEC 酋长工作。欧佩克在维也纳。我喜欢维也纳。
It sounded good. Maybe I'll do that and go work for an OPEC sheik for $100K. OPEC's in Vienna. I like Vienna.
“你好，平代克教授，我想预约和你谈谈你的石油定价研究。”
"Hello, Professor Pyndike, I'd like to make an appointment to talk to you about your oil pricing research."
“和我的秘书谈谈，预约一下。我要等到下周二才出去。”
"Talk to my secretary and make an appointment. I'll be out until next Tuesday."
“好，谢谢。”
"OK. Thanks."
“Leon Glicksman 教授。泡沫冰箱隔热材料中氟利昂脱气的实验和理论研究。开发计算机模型来预测实验结果，构建测试设备并完善模型。”
"Professor Leon Glicksman. Experimental and theoretical study of outgassing of freon in foam refrigerator insulation. Development of computer models to predict experimental results, construction of test apparatus, and refinement of models."
他的答录机说他下周二回来。听到提示音后我没有留言。
His answering machine said he'd be back next Tuesday. I didn't leave a message after the tone.
米基奇的办公室在 3 号楼。穿过大厅，我停下来看着展示柜，上面贴着照片，还有用燕麦片盒、橡皮筋和绳子制成的东西。一定是某种竞赛。
Mikic's office was in Building 3. Across the hall I stopped to look at the display case with photos posted and things made out of oatmeal boxes, rubber bands, and string. Must have been some kind of contest.
他的办公室充满教授气息。他办公桌旁边的桌子上堆满了期刊文章。他坐的对面有一块黑板。他身后有一堵满书柜的墙。他的窗户俯瞰着基利安庭院潮湿的树木。他年轻的助手和我年纪相仿，穿着运动短裤和 T 恤，正在黑板附近的电脑终端上打字。
His office was professorly. Piles of journal articles on the table next to his desk. A blackboard opposite where he sat. A wall of full bookcases behind him. His window overlooked the humid trees of Killian Court. His young assistant, about my age in gym shorts and a T-shirt, was typing at a computer terminal near the blackboard.
米基奇给了我一张麻省理工学院的黑色船长椅，就是校友们在自己书房里放的那种，上面没有一堆期刊文章。堆得很整齐。我有一种感觉，我可以向他询问有关热传递的任何问题，他可以走到正确的一堆并从中间拉出正确的文章。
Mikic offered me one of the black MIT captain's chairs, the kind that alumni have in their dens, the one that didn't have a stack of journal articles on it. The piles were neat. I had the feeling that I could ask him about anything in heat transfer and he could go to the right pile and pull just the right article out of the middle of it.
他五十岁左右，身材修长，大部分头发都留着，穿着一件白色短袖纽扣衬衫，没有打领带。最上面的纽扣没有扣上。他有着友好、聪明的微笑。
He was about fifty, trim, with most of his hair, wearing a white short-sleeve button-down shirt, no tie. The top button was unbuttoned. He had a friendly, intelligent smile.
“那么，我能为您做点什么吗，先生……”
"So, what can I do for you, Mr...."
“怀特。我在比利时做了一些相变材料的工作，所以我认为这些经验可能对你的项目有用。”
"White. I did some work on phase change materials in Belgium, so I thought that experience might be useful for your project."
“嗯，很抱歉，但我已经把那个项目交给了坐在那边的那个人。” 终端机上的那个人看上去很聪明，打字速度很快。我也想在导师的办公室里显得聪明、打字快。
"Well, I'm sorry, but I already have given that project to that fellow sitting over there." The guy at the terminal was looking smart, typing fast. I wanted to look smart and type fast in my mentor's office, too.
米基奇问道：“你离开这里之后想做什么？”
Mikic asked, "What do you want to do when you get out of here?"
“我想成为一名能源专家。”
"I want to be an energy expert."
“嗯，那很好。现在这是一个很好的话题。不过要小心。当你结束时，石油价格可能会回落到每桶 15 美元，每个人都会忘记节能。你在这里学什么并不重要。我们教你思考。我们让你成为一名专业人士。然后你就可以做任何你想做的事。”
"Well, that's very good. That's a good topic now. Be careful, though. When you finish oil might be back down to $15 a barrel and everyone will forget about energy conservation. It doesn't really matter what you study here. We teach you to think. We make you into a professional. Then you can do whatever you want."
“你能帮我选择这个学期的课程吗？我选了一些我觉得很有趣的课程，比如流体、热学和传热学。我本学期考虑选修五到六门课程，包括一些 TPP 课程，因为我不知道还没有资金。那我就领先了。”
"Could you help me pick out my classes for the term? I've starred some that look interesting to me, like fluids, thermo, and heat transfer. I was thinking about taking five or six this term including some TPP courses since I don't have funding yet. Then I'll be ahead of the game."
“从五个开始，然后丢两个，”他轻快地说。“并确保你在真正的工程课程中获得A。我们大多数人都不太相信软政策方面的A。我们雇用那些能够在硬课程中取得A的人。”
"Start with five, then drop two," he said briskly. "And make sure you get A's in the real engineering classes. Most of us don't give much credit to A's in that soft policy stuff. We hire people who can make it in the hard courses."
米基奇继续说道：“你知道，你在没有钱的情况下来到这里，这是一件勇敢的事情。二十五年前我也做过同样的事情。我飞到这里，有一个学期的钱和一张回南斯拉夫的机票。如果我在第一学期没能成功，否则我会“回到蒂托的家”。“第一个学期我比大多数人都努力，所有课程都得了 A。现在我是一名终身教授。谁知道呢？也许同样的事情也会发生在你身上。”
Mikic continued, "You know it's a courageous thing you're doing, coming here without any money. I did the same thing twenty-five years ago. I flew here and had money for one term and a plane ticket home to Yugoslavia. If I didn't make it in the first semester it would have been 'back home to Tito.' I worked harder than most in that first term, and I got A's in all my classes. Now I'm a tenured professor. Who knows? Maybe the same will happen to you."
“我希望如此，”我起身离开时说道。
"I hope so," I said as I rose to leave.
“祝你好运。如果你需要任何帮助，请过来。”
"Good luck now. If you ever need any help, please drop by."
如果说 Mikic 是学术界，那么 Gyftopoulos 就是工业界。我需要他的许可才能学习《通用热力学 I》。他的桌子和椅子是柚木的；他的桌子和椅子都是柚木的。中间放着一张纸，左边放着一小叠信件。当他打电话时，我浏览了从接待区拿到的热电公司的年度报告。净收入为 1,700 万美元，销售额为 2.7 亿美元。在董事们合影的页面上，吉夫托普洛斯有一张护照尺寸的照片，看起来既聪明又富有。在麻省理工学院的智力马拉松比赛中，他获得了金牌。
If Mikic was academe, Gyftopoulos was industry. I needed his permission to take General Thermodynamics I. His desk and chairs were teak; a single pad of paper was on the center and a small stack of correspondence to his left. While he was on the phone I glanced at the annual report from Thermo Electron that I had picked up from the reception area. Net revenues of $17 million on $270 million in sales. On the page where the directors were pictured, Gyftopoulos had a passport-size photo, looking wise and wealthy. In the mental marathon that is MIT, he was a gold medalist.
吉夫托普洛斯已经六十多岁了，体重有点超重，但他控制得很好。他有一头花白灰色的头发，发际线逐渐后移，已经快要秃顶了。他的衬衫没有口袋，但左胸前有一张整齐地印有字母组合的 EPG。他抽着从便笺簿旁边的银色烟盒中取出的香烟。
Gyftopoulos was pushing sixty, a little overweight but he carried it well. He had salt-and-pepper gray hair and a receding hairline that had stopped well short of baldness. His shirt had no pockets, but on the left chest was a neatly monogrammed E.P.G. He smoked a cigarette he had taken from the silver cigarette case next to the pad.
“我想参加您的普通热力学课程，先生，”我说。
"I'd like to take your general thermodynamics class, sir," I said.
“没关系。” 他的口音听起来像是他在雅典跟一个英国人学的英语。“你有什么热力学背景？”
"That's fine." His accent sounded like he'd learned English from a Brit in Athens. "What kind of background do you have in thermodynamics?"
“嗯，我在霍普金斯大学学习了施瓦茨教授的课程，而且我还学习了几门涉及流体力学和传热传质的课程。”
"Well, I took a course at Hopkins with Professor Schwarz, and I've also taken several fluid mechanics and heat and mass transfer classes that touch on it."
“你在那些课上得了A吗？” 他直接问道。
"Did you get A's in those classes?" he asked directly.
“是的，我学过。我真的很想上你的课。我对热力学的能量守恒方面特别感兴趣。”
"Yes, I did. I'd really like to take your class. I'm especially interested in the energy conservation aspects of thermodynamics."
“你有节能方面的背景吗？”
"Do you have any background in energy conservation?"
“我在意大利时对一家工厂进行了节能研究。我发现，如果他们花钱雇人去修复压缩空气系统中的泄漏，他们每年可以节省 25,000 美元。”
"I did an energy conservation study of a factory while I was in Italy. I found that if they would pay a guy to go around and fix the leaks in the compressed air system they could save $25,000 per year."
“这很有趣，”他回答道，“很高兴你注意到他们必须付钱给这个人才能节省开支。资本、劳动力和能源总是需要权衡的。欢迎你注册课程。我期待在第一堂课上见到你。”
"That's very interesting," he answered, "and it's good that you noted that they would have to pay the guy to achieve the savings. There is always a trade-off of capital, labor, and energy. You're welcome to register for the course. I shall look forward to seeing you at the first lecture."
得到他的认可感觉很好。
It felt good to have his approval.
“谢谢您，先生。有什么书可以让我读一下，以便在材料方面取得领先吗？”
"Thank you, sir. Is there any book I can read to get a head start on the material?"
“不，你最好等到第一节课。那时我们会分发课程笔记。吉安·保罗·贝雷塔和我正在编写一本文本，我们相信它不会犯热力学文本中常见的错误。如果你阅读任何其他材料也许会让你感到困惑。”
"No, it's best that you wait until the first class. We will be handing out course notes then. Gian Paolo Beretta and I are working on a text that we believe will not make the mistakes that are commonly found in thermodynamics texts. If you read any other material perhaps it might confuse you."
星期五的TPP迎新会在1号楼二楼的休息室Miller Room举行。我终于在一个地方见到了所有其他学生。他们都很聪明，但大多数人似乎缺乏我对麻省理工学院的人所期望的专注和方向。不过，有些人已经存活了一年或更长时间，我渴望获得他们的信心。
Friday the TPP orientation meeting was in the Miller Room, the lounge on the second floor of Building 1. I finally met all the other students in one place. They were all bright enough, but most seemed to lack the focus and direction I expected of people at MIT. Some had survived a year or more, though, and I hungered for their confidence.
另一位新秀是迈克尔·皮卡迪（Michael Picardi），他去年五月刚刚从威廉姆斯学院获得物理学位。他的高级论文是“黑洞中的相对论效应”。
One of the other rookies was Michael Picardi, who'd just earned his physics degree from Williams College the previous May. His senior thesis was on "Relativistic Effects in Black Holes."
“你为什么不去读物理研究生院？” 我问他（过去式。
"Why aren't you going to physics graduate school?" I asked him.
“因为我不是韩国天才，我想要有自己的生活，”他说。“我为此苦恼了一段时间，但有时你只能跟着自己的直觉走。我要做机械工程和节能。这似乎比物理学更近期。聚变对于人类来说是不可行的。”最多四十年，我现在想做一些有用的事情。”
"Because I'm not a Korean genius and I want to have a life," he said. "I agonized over it a while, but sometimes you just have to go with your gut. I'm going to do mechanical engineering and energy conservation. It seems a little nearer-term than physics. Fusion isn't going to be feasible for forty years at best, and I want to do something useful now."
“哎呀，你听起来就像我一样，”我说。“只有我在霍普金斯大学三年级时放弃了物理学。我仍然记得这个问题。‘找到一个无限长的均匀电荷圆柱体的几何中心处的静电势。’ 然后我选择了流体力学作为一种妥协。至少你可以看到流体。你怎么能看到电场呢？”
"Gee, you sound just like me," I said. "Only I bailed out of physics in my junior year at Hopkins. I still remember the problem. 'Find the electrostatic potential at the geometric center of an infinitely long cylinder of uniform charge.' Then I took up fluid mechanics as sort of a compromise. At least you can see the fluids. How can you see an electric field?"
“我知道你的意思，”他说。“也许我们可以一起上一些课。”
"I know what you mean," he said. "Maybe we'll take some classes together."
平迪克的办公室
Pyndike's office
9 月 8 日星期二
Tuesday, September 8
“你参与了 TPP 计划，不是吗？你一定对更多与技术有关的话题更感兴趣。我真的在寻找具有更直接的经济和政策倾向的人。”
"You're in that TPP program, aren't you? You must be more interested in a topic dealing more with technology. I'm really looking for someone with a more straight economics and policy slant."
那天下午，在格利克斯曼的办公室。“你参与了 TPP 计划，对吗？你一定对更多涉及政策和此类内容的话题更感兴趣。我真的在寻找有直接机械方向的人。”
That afternoon in Glicksman's office. "You're in that TPP program, right? You must be more interested in a topic dealing more with policy and that kind of stuff. I'm really looking for someone with a straight mechanical direction."
周三，我会见了我的 TPP 顾问戴维·马克斯 (David Marks)。作为一名土木工程教授，他以研究如何管理拥有多座水坝的河流流域的水流为自己的专长。杰里·科洪（Jerry Cohon）是我在霍普金斯大学的新生导师，他是马克斯的第一位博士生。学生。
Wednesday, I met with my TPP adviser, David Marks. A civil engineering professor, he figured out how to manage water flows in river basins with several dams as his specialty. Jerry Cohon, my freshman faculty adviser at Hopkins, had been Marks's first Ph.D. student.
“我想从 TPP 中得到的是良好的工程背景和一些经济学知识，这样我就能弄清楚节能计划的成本效益，”我说。
"What I want out of TPP is a sound engineering background and some economics so I can figure out cost-effectiveness of energy conservation programs," I said.
那你就应该退出TPP。直接进入课程 2 获得机械工程学位。你似乎知道自己想要从这个地方得到什么。我们努力让那些知道自己想要什么的人才在这里实现；我们尽量不妨碍他们。但如果你完全不确定，你将会经历一段艰难的时期。顺便说一句，当你拨打男厕所的号码时，你就会知道我们找到你了。”
You should get out of TPP then. Go straight to Course 2get your degree in mechanical engineering. You seem to know what you want out of this place. We try to let talented people who know what they want achieve it here; we try to stay out of their way. But if you're at all uncertain, you'll be in for a rough time. By the way, you'll know we've got you when you call the men's room by its number."
我从 TPP 过渡到真正的机械工程的最后一环是与机械工程学生的研究生导师 Warren Rohsenow 的会面。我仍然不知道我是如何被接纳的全部情况，而且我有点害怕尝试离开 TPP 会发现他们在让我加入时可能犯下的错误。
The last hoop of my transition from TPP to real mechanical engineering was the meeting with Warren Rohsenow, graduate adviser for mechanical engineering students. I still didn't know the full circumstances of how I was admitted, and I was a little scared that trying to leave TPP would uncover the error they may have made in letting me in.
罗森诺靠在椅子上，清理着烟斗，翻阅了我的档案，实事求是地说：“你已经在这个部门了。”
Rohsenow, leaning back in his chair and cleaning his pipe, looked through my file and said matter-of-factly, "You're already in this department."
唷。
Phew.
现在是坏消息。罗森诺继续说道：“问题是，既然你在大学里没有选修机械工程，那么你就必须选修该系的所有本科核心课程：二哦一静力学、二哦二系统动力学和控制、二九十四动力学，二三十一材料强度，二七十设计。就这么定了；要么接受，要么放弃。”
Now the bad news. Rohsenow continued: "The hooker is, since you didn't take mechanical engineering in college, you'll have to take all the department's undergraduate core courses: twooh-one Statics, two-oh-two System Dynamics and Controls, twoninety-four Dynamics, two-thirty-one Strength of Materials, and two seventy Design. That's the deal; take it or leave it."
我的契约奴役期限刚刚增加了一倍。“我仍然想从我擅长的领域的研究生课程开始，”我说。“我认为这会帮助我找到资金。”
My term of indentured servitude had just doubled. "I'd still like to start with the graduate courses in my strong areas," I said. "I think it'll help me find funding."
“出色地。” 噗噗。“如果你问我的话，这听起来有点不太对劲，但这是你的决定。你的硕士学位需要六门研究生课程，所以最好把其中三门去掉。”
"Well." Puff puff. "It sounds kind of bass ackwards if you ask me but it's your decision. You need six graduate courses for your master's so it'll be good to get three of them out of the way."
“谢谢你的签名，”我说。“看来你要教传热学，所以我想我们会在课堂上见到你的。”
"Thank you for your signature," I said. "It looks like you'll be teaching heat transfer, so I guess I'll see you in class."
“好的，上课见。”
"Right. See you in class."
章节
C H A P T E R
2
2
班级
Class
1981 年 9 月 10 日，星期四
Thursday, September 10, 1981
上午 9:23 3-214 室，位于二楼大厅尽头，位于大楼拐角处，可欣赏河景。空气中弥漫着一丝秋天的气息。30 x 40 英尺教室的水平地板上有 100 张硬木电影院椅子，每张椅子都有一个从椅子扶手向上摆动的小桌面。我在第二排中间左边选了一个。足够近，可以看到黑板，足够远，如果他们在这里就是这样做的话，就不会被首先点名。
9:23 A.M. Room 3-214, on the second floor at the end of the hall, on the corner of the building with a view of the river. A hint of fall was in the air. The 100 hard wooden movie theatre chairs on the level floor of the 30-by-40-foot classroom each had a little desk surface that swung up from the arm of the chair. I picked one on the second row just left of center. Close enough to see the blackboard, far enough not to get called on first if that's what they do here.
阿舍尔·夏皮罗教授将两本二十五《高级流体力学》的笔记放在三块黑板前略高的木制平台上的桌子上。他看起来已接近退休年龄，秃顶两侧留着长长的灰色头发。他穿着浅棕色灯芯绒衣服、绿色高领毛衣，戴着一副银框半框小眼镜，只有在低头看笔记时才戴上这副眼镜。
Professor Ascher Shapiro arranged his notes for two twentyfive, Advanced Fluid Mechanics, on the table on the slightly elevated wooden platform in front of the three blackboards. He looked close to retirement age, with longish gray hair around the sides of the bald spot. He wore light brown corduroys, a green turtleneck, and small silver-rimmed half-spectacles that he looked through only when looking down at his notes.
快到 9 点 30 分的时候，我周围的一百多张桌子都坐满了。我的同学都是二十多岁。许多美国人，但至少三分之一是外国人。希腊人、韩国人、伊朗人、印度人、法国人、中国人都用自己的母语交谈。大约有五名女性。
The hundred or so desks filled around me as 9:30 approached. My fellow students were in their mid- to late twenties. Many Americans, but at least a third were foreigners. Greeks, Koreans, Iranians, Indians, French, Chinese conversed in their native tongues. There were about five women.
9点28分，夏皮罗开始画图表，9点30分，他平静地说：“我想现在就开始。” 他有轻微的纽约口音。三十秒后，所有的谈话都停止了。
At 9:28 Shapiro began drawing diagrams, and at 9:30 he quietly said, "I'd like to begin now." He had a slight New York accent. Thirty seconds later all the conversations had stopped.
“在我们开始之前，我想先介绍一下课程的一些细节。学期期间将有两次测验和期末考试。在课程结束时，我们将分发一系列问题供您解答。学期内做的作业。这些不会用于交出或计入您的成绩。但是，我们强烈建议您这样做。做题对于您掌握材料至关重要。通过做题，我不认为这并不意味着模仿手册中的解决方案 - 我的意思是你需要自己开拓解决方案的道路；开辟自己的道路，找到死胡同，原路返回，然后继续前进。每次都会有两次辅导课程周五。你可以来这些地方向 Gemayel 教授寻求帮助，寻找解决方案。此外，我们鼓励你在讲座中做好笔记。在学期结束时，你可以选择提交你的讲座笔记本。如果可以的话做得好，并且您处于一个等级和另一个等级之间的边界，您将获得更高的等级。”
"Before we get started, I'd like to go over some housekeeping details for the class. There will be two quizzes during the term and a final exam. At the end of class we will be handing out a set of problems for you to work on during the term. These will not be for handing in or count toward your grade. However, we strongly recommend that you do them. It is essential for your mastery of the material that you do problems. And by doing problems, I don't mean mimicking a worked-out solution from a handbook-I mean that you need to pioneer your way through the solution yourself; blaze your own trail, find the dead ends, backtrack, and move on. There will be two tutorial sessions every Friday. You can come to these to ask Professor Gemayel for help finding solutions. Also, we want to encourage you to take good notes from the lectures. At the end of the term you will have the option of submitting your lecture notebook. If it is well done and you are on the borderline between one grade and another, you will receive the higher grade."
我想我们现在已经是大男孩和女孩了，不会被迫做作业了。不过，我会写得很快，并在每节课后抄写我的笔记。布朗尼积分可能会派上用场。
I guess we're big boys and girls now and don't get forced into doing homework. I'll write fast, though, and copy over my notes after every class. The brownie points might come in handy.
“现在开始演讲，”夏皮罗继续说道。“流体力学是力学的一个分支。力学可以定义为对运动、力和物体以及由力引起的物体运动之间关系的研究。流体力学的主题非常广泛，包括水力学、等离子体（例如氢聚变反应堆中的等离子体）、气体动力学、物理海洋学、磁流体动力学和流体控制系统。这门特殊课程是高级课程，以比您可能拥有的更高程度的洞察力和复杂性接近基础知识以前经历过。”
"Now for the lecture," Shapiro continued. "Fluid mechanics is a branch of mechanics. Mechanics may be defined as the study of motions, forces, and bodies, and the relationships between the motions of bodies that are brought about by forces. The subject of fluid mechanics is very broad, including hydraulics, plasmas such as those in a hydrogen fusion reactor, gas dynamics, physical oceanography, magnetohydrodynamics, and fluid control systems. This particular course is advanced, approaching the fundamentals with what is hoped to be a greater degree of insight and sophistication than you may have experienced before."
他说话就像一个有权威的人。自 20 世纪 50 年代初以来，他一定已经进行了二十七次相同的演讲，完善了演讲风格，将其切割成完美的智慧宝石。我尽可能快地写着，潦草地写着，短暂地希望我知道如何速记。我不想错过任何一个方面。
He spoke as one having authority. The twenty-seven times he must have presented the identical lecture since the early 1950s had polished the presentation style, cut it down to a flawless gem of wisdom. I wrote, scribbled as fast as I could, briefly wishing that I knew how to take shorthand; I didn't want to miss a facet.
夏皮罗解释了密度。他首先抽取小块液体。它们是黑板上的小圆圈，每个圆圈的中心到边缘都有一条小线。“我们有一个连续体模型；也就是说，我们将分子运动的影响建模为平均值，而不是观察每个分子。连续体完全是虚构的，它试图对真实进行建模。连续体与真实之间的联系是连续介质属性应该代表真实材料的适当平均值。通过密度，我们将密度值分配给一个点。我们为连续介质场中每个点的密度赋予一个值，作为空间和时间的函数。这是巨大的智力飞跃由制成 ...”
Shapiro explained density. He started by drawing little chunks of fluid. They were little circles on the blackboard, with a little line from the center to the edge of each circle. "We have a continuum model; that is, we model the effects of the molecular motion as an average instead of looking at each molecule. The continuum is a total fiction which attempts to model the real. The connection between the continuum and the real is that the continuum properties should represent appropriate averages of the real material. With density, we assign density values to a point. We give density a value at each point in our continuum field as a function of space and time. This is the giant intellectual leap made by ..."
我没听清这个名字。我会举手询问。不，我会在笔记中留下空白，稍后再询问。如果我知道他所说的模型是什么意思，那就太好了。
I didn't catch the name. I'll raise my hand and ask. No, I'll leave a blank in my notes and ask later. It would be nice if I knew what he meant by a model.
他的讲座让我回到了物理时代。我对物理学有点无知，而适用于流体的同样的抽象概念又回来困扰着我。但我喜欢液体。如果您了解它们，您就可以了解为什么龙卷风会发生这种情况，为什么风在白天从海洋吹到晚上又吹向海洋。我将能够在咖啡中看到更多的云彩。
His lecture brought me back to my physics days. I had sort of wimped out on physics, and here the same kind of abstract concepts that applied to fluids were coming back to haunt me. But I enjoy fluids. If you understand them, you can have an idea why a tornado does what it does, why the wind blows from the ocean in the day and to the ocean at night. I'll be able to see more than clouds in my coffee.
他优雅地继续介绍流体静力学——当流体静止时会发生什么。这就是土木工程师在建造水坝时所担心的问题。水越深，压力就越高。压力越高，大坝上的力就越大。力越大，混凝土越厚。否则水压会导致大坝决堤。学生们没有提问，只有全神贯注、飞快的写作。11:00 前铃声响起时，我已经写满了十八张纸。感觉像是信息超载，但至少我必须在周二之前消化下一次讲座之前的材料。
He elegantly continued, covering fluid statics-what happens when the fluid is standing still. This is what civil engineers worry about when they build dams. The deeper the water, the higher the pressure. The higher the pressure, the bigger the force on the dam. The bigger the force, the thicker the concrete. Otherwise the water pressure would cause the dam to burst. There were no questions from the students, only rapt attention and fast writing. When the bell rang just before 11:00, I had filled eighteen sheets of paper with notes. It felt like an information overload, but at least I had until Tuesday to digest the material before the next lecture.
夏皮罗最后说道：“我想重申做题的重要性。通过自己做题，你会发现学习和被教之间存在着巨大的差异。杰马耶尔教授将分发习题包。” 当杰马耶勒分发半英寸厚的包裹时，我们一百个人走到前面，像坑里的期权交易员一样挤在一起。
Shapiro finished by saying, "I want to reiterate the importance of doing problems. Through working problems on your own, you will find that there is an enormous difference between learning and being taught. Professor Gemayel will be handing out the problem packets." The one hundred of us went to the front, crowding around like options traders in a pit as Gemayel handed out the half-inch-thick packets.
当我等待轮到我时，我看到门口附近有一个看起来很熟悉的人。“对不起，”我说。“你去过约翰·霍普金斯大学吗？”
While I waited my turn I saw near the door a guy who looked familiar. "Excuse me," I said. "Did you go to Johns Hopkins?"
“是的，但是我在大三和大四的时候转学到了麻省理工学院。我叫马特·阿姆斯特朗。”
"Yeah, but I transfered to MIT for my junior and senior years. My name's Matt Armstrong."
我记得他在大一物理课上提出的尖锐问题。马特曾是一名“Simpy”（SMPY，数学早熟青年研究）；七年级时，他参加了 SAT 数学考试，并获得了 700 分，是巴尔的摩七年级学生中最高的。这个分数使他有资格从大学到高中学习数学。我有一种感觉，在这堂课上，马特可能在钟形曲线的另一边。尽管他有数学天赋，但他是一个好人。1975年秋天，他的头发是齐肩的，但现在已经短了。
I remembered the acute questions he had asked in physics class freshman year. Matt had been a "Simpy" (for SMPY, Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth); in seventh grade he took the SAT math test and scored 700 on it, the highest of any seventh grader in Baltimore. That score qualified him to study math at the college level through high school. I had the feeling Matt might be on the other side of the bell curve from me in this class. Math talent notwithstanding, he was a nice guy. In the fall of 1975 he had had shoulder-length hair, but it was short now.
“毕业后你都在做什么？” 当我们沿着大厅走向无限长的走廊时，我问道。
"What have you been doing since you graduated?" I asked as we walked down the hall toward the infinite corridor.
“过去两年我在128号公路上的一家高科技公司工作，开发一种高效热水器。我应该很快就能获得专利。事实上，今天下午我必须去那里签署一些专利。”文件。”
"I worked the past two years out at a high-tech company on Route 128, developing a high-efficiency water heater. I should be getting a patent on it soon. In fact, I have to go out there this afternoon to sign some papers."
专利。这家伙有专利。
Patent. This guy has a patent.
他问：“现在有课吗？”
He asked, "Do you have a class now?"
“是的。二四五一。”
"Yeah. Two four five one."
“嘿，那太好了。我也坐二四五一。也许我们可以找几个座位在一起。”
"Hey, that's great. I'm taking two four five one, too. Maybe we can find a couple of seats together."
无限长的走廊上，空气更加电动，行走的速度比上课前略快了一些。仍然没有目光接触。我感觉这些人没有浪费时间。
On the infinite corridor the air was more electric, the walking pace slightly faster than it had been before classes started. Still no eye contact. I had the feeling these people didn't waste time.
吉夫托普洛斯的演讲厅里也有同样的电影椅桌，只是当你回到房间时，座位的排数会上升。马特和我在第四排找到了两个。
Gyftopoulos's lecture hall had the same movie chair desks, only the rows went up as you went back in the room. Matt and I found two in the fourth row.
很多学生和流体学院的学生是一样的。也许这个班还有几个美国人。同样，大多数是男性，有四五个女性。无论男女，长得特别好看的人都不多，但眼神中普遍都流露出战战兢兢的神情。很多人看起来就像每隔一天才刮胡子一样。
A lot of the students were the same ones as in Fluids. Maybe there were a few more Americans in this class. Again, mostly men, with four or five women. There weren't many particularly goodlooking people of either gender, but there was a universal look of embattled concentration in the eyes. A lot of the guys looked like they only shaved every other day.
吉夫托普洛斯在班级前面和一个和我年纪相仿的人聊天，他留着浅棕色的小胡子，下巴上只有一小撮胡须。年轻人所需要的只是一个单片眼镜和合适的衣服，他就可以出现在“间谍”卡通片中。11:00 几分钟后，Gyftopoulos 召集全班同学遵守秩序。当他看到我坐在第四排时，他微笑着向我点点头。
Gyftopoulos chatted at the front of the class with a guy about my age who had a light brown mustache and a small beard on his chin alone. All the younger guy needed was a monocle and the right clothes and he could have been in a "Spy" cartoon. A couple of minutes after 11:00 Gyftopoulos called the class to order. He smiled and nodded my way when he saw me in the fourth row.
“首先我想了解一些内务细节，”他说。“每周都会布置家庭作业，并在下周的讲座上完成。学期期间还会有一到两次两小时的测验，以及期末考试。你的成绩将基于 30% 的家庭作业和 30% 的测验，期末考试成绩为 40%。”
"First I want to go over a few housekeeping details," he said. "Homework will be assigned every week, due at the lecture the following week. Also there will be one or two two-hour quizzes during the term, plus a final examination. Your grade will be based 30 percent on homework, 30 percent on quizzes, and 40 percent on the final examination."
他和夏皮罗对两个小时的测验的称呼很好。也许是制定了政策，让他们从期中考试或考试中缓和下来；也许是这样。测验是你在高中时花十分钟做的事情。至少我对习题集的评分和计数感到安慰。我想如果我能坚持下去，我应该能够在课堂上表现得体面。
It was nice how both he and Shapiro called the two-hour tests quizzes. Perhaps it was institute policy to mellow-speak them down from midterm examination or test; a quiz is what you take for ten minutes in high school. At least I was comforted by the grading and counting of the problem sets. I figured if I could just hang in with those, I should be able to do respectably in the class.
Gyftopoulos 继续说道：“Gian Paolo Beretta 将帮助我授课；他也将随时为您解答任何问题。当然，我们随时欢迎您来到我的办公室提问。”
Gyftopoulos continued, "Gian Paolo Beretta will be helping me teach the class; he will also be available to assist you with any questions you may have. And of course you are always welcome to come to my office to ask questions."
我想，贝莱塔一定很聪明。如果他在教书，他一定已经拥有博士学位，这对于一个 24 岁的人来说已经不错了。
Beretta must be brilliant, I thought. If he's teaching he must already have his Ph.D., which isn't bad for a twenty-four-yearold.
“由于没有可用的文本来教授我们将在这里展示的内容，因此您需要购买一套我和 Gian Paolo 整理的课堂笔记。在我们计算要复制的组数时，请留在座位上。”
"Since there are no texts available that teach what we shall be presenting here, you will be required to purchase a set of class notes that Gian Paolo and I have put together. Please remain seated while we count the number of sets to reproduce."
吉安·保罗 (Gian Paolo) 开始数数，我也开始数。马特上下左右看了看，当吉安·保罗 (Gian Paolo) 坐到第二排时，马特大声说道：“七十六。”
Gian Paolo started counting, as did I. Matt looked up and down, to the left and the right, and by the time Gian Paolo was on the second row Matt said out loud, "Seventy-six."
“很好。谢谢你，”吉夫托普洛斯说道，并没有质疑马特如此坚定地说出的数字。
"Good. Thank you," Gyftopoulos said, not questioning the number that Matt had stated with such conviction.
我轻声问马特：“你怎么数得这么快？”
I asked Matt quietly, "How'd you count so fast?"
“每排有 14 张椅子。一共有 6 排，即 84 个座位，还有 8 个空座位。即 76 个座位。”
"Each row has 14 chairs. There are 6 rows-that's 84-and there're 8 empty seats. That's 76."
好吧，我想我们知道谁会在这门课上获得 A。
Well, I guess we know who's going to get an A in this class.
Gyftopoulos 再次说道：“我希望你们在讲座期间也可以随意提出任何问题。我不会将召集学生作为常规练习，但我可能会不时请某人帮助进行推导。”
Again Gyftopoulos: "I want you to feel free to ask any questions during the lecture also. I will not be calling on students as a regular practice, but I may from time to time ask someone to help with a derivation."
不像苏格拉底方法那么糟糕，但我应该跟上这里的阅读和问题集。通常工程类都是单向数据传输；你试图跟上讲座的逻辑流程，但只有教授在被提问时必须快速思考。但吉夫托普洛斯会挑战我们，也许还会挑战我。
Not quite as bad as the Socratic method, but I should keep up with the reading and problem sets here. Usually engineering classes are one-way data transfer; you try to keep up with the lecture's logic flow, but only the professor has to think fast when questioned. But Gyftopoulos would challenge us, and maybe challenge me.
“现在开始演讲，”吉夫托普洛斯继续说道。“课程名称又是‘一般热力学’。一般指的是课程方法的几个方面。首先，阐述是一种对所有系统都有效的方法，无论其大小如何。其次，结果对我们系统的所有状态和条件都有效。第三，该方法表明热力学不是一个封闭的领域，而是包括许多可供讨论和新分析的开放领域。标题中的热力学是指对物质的性质以及物质性质发生变化的研究; 因此物质不同部分的相互作用。热力学比力学更普遍，因为它可以描述热体和冷体，这是力学科学无法描述的领域。此外，力学无法处理这个概念的熵。”
"Now for the lecture," Gyftopoulos went on. "The course title again is 'General Thermodynamics.' General refers to several as pects of the approach to the course. First of all, the exposition is of an approach that is valid for all systems, regardless of their size. Second, the results will be valid for all states and conditions of our systems. Third, the approach suggests that thermodynamics is not a closed field, but rather includes many areas that are open for discussion and new analysis. Thermodynamics in the title refers to a study of the properties of matter and the changes in properties of matter which occur; thus the interactions of different parts of matter. The science of thermodynamics is more general than mechanics in that it can describe hot and cold bodies, an area that the science of mechanics is incapable of describing. In addition, mechanics cannot deal with the concept of entropy."
正确的。什么是国家？什么是系统？什么是熵？我继续写，写得很快。
Right. What's a state? What's a system? What is entropy? I kept writing, scribbling fast.
“现在介绍一些基本概念，”吉夫托普洛斯继续说道。“与任何科学方法一样，我们应该专注于宇宙的一小部分，即一个系统。一个系统至少需要两件事：(a) 系统中物质的数量——它的质量——以及(b) 约束或外部因素。参数——即，你必须定义系统边界。现在我们如何分析系统？有两种可能性。第一种是在某一时刻，第二种是时间的函数。
"Now for some basic concepts," Gyftopoulos continued. "As in any scientific approach, we shall concentrate on a small part of the universe, a system. A system needs at least two things: (a) the amount of matter in the system-its mass-and (b) constraints or external parameters-i.e., you must define the system boundary. Now how do we analyze systems? There are two possibilities. First at one instant in time, and second as a function of time.
“在某一时刻，系统的状态或状况是分析系统的一个强大概念。如果你了解系统及其状态，你就可以在某一时刻计算出你想知道的一切。状态是一个允许我们计算属性的一组数字或参数。”
"At one instant in time, the state or condition of the system is a powerful concept in analyzing the system. If you know the system and its state, you can calculate everything you want to know for the one instant of time. State is a set of numbers or parameters that allow us to calculate properties."
正确的。什么是财产？
Right. What's a property?
“其次，时间函数分析依赖于运动方程来描述从一种状态到另一种状态的转变。”
"Second, the function-of-time analysis relies on the equation of motion to describe the transition from one state to another."
吉夫托普洛斯又用类似的抽象术语讲了一个小时。马特聚精会神地听着，写下了一套完美的笔记，而我则随手乱写，遵循着推理的点点滴滴，但想知道这一切与我成为能源沙皇的愿望有何契合。稍后我会把笔记抄下来。
Gyftopoulos talked in similar abstract terms for another hour. Matt listened attentively and wrote a perfectly neat set of notes while I scribbled away, following bits and pieces of the line of reasoning but wondering where this all fit into my aspiration to be an energy czar. I would copy over the notes later.
“感谢您的关注。请领取下周的习题集和我写的一篇文章的副本。”
"Thank you for your attention. Please pick up a copy of next week's problem set and the copy of an article I've written."
这篇文章的标题是“热力学原理”。它是从大英百科全书重印的。
The article was entitled "Thermodynamics, Principles of." It was reprinted from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
当我们离开教室时，我问马特，“说吧，马特，你知道哪里有桌子吗？我在开课前退出了技术和政策项目，他们想要回我的桌子。”
I asked Matt as we left the classroom, "Say there, Matt, do you know of any desks anywhere? I quit the Technology and Policy Program just before classes started and they want my desk back."
“所以你押注了 TPP？听起来是个好举动。我的办公室里有一张桌子可以使用。你为什么不和部门秘书夏洛特·埃文斯谈谈，看看是否能拿到钥匙？我不想看到”
"So you punted TPP? Sounds like a good move. There's a desk in my office that's available. Why don't you talk to Charlotte Evans, the department secretary, and see if you can get a key? I'd hate to see you wandering around the institute with a shopping cart full of books. By the way, do you play soccer? We're putting a team together for intramurals. It's called the Calorics. We've got a practice tonight at 6:30."
“是的，这听起来很棒。我在欧洲玩过一点。听起来也是结识一些人的好方法。也许可以得到一些资金。你有 RA 吗？”
"Yeah, that sounds great. I played a little bit in Europe. Sounds like a good way to meet some people, too. Maybe get some funding. Do you have an R.A.?"
“我正在为 Glicksman 从事泡沫冰箱隔热材料碳氟化合物的除气工作。他大约一周前刚刚雇用了我。你呢？”
"I'm working on outgassing of fluorocarbons for foam refrigerator insulation for Glicksman. He just hired me about a week ago. How about you?"
“我很高兴至少那个研究助理职位给了一个好人。他拒绝了我。我还在寻找。如果你听到什么消息，也许你可以告诉我。你午餐做什么？ ” 我问。
"I'm glad that at least that research assistantship went to a nice guy. He turned me down for it. I'm still looking. If you hear of anything, maybe you can let me know. What are you doing for lunch?" I asked.
“我要去哈佛广场见我的妻子克劳迪娅。也许我们三个可以找个时间聚一聚。”
"I'm going up to Harvard Square to meet my wife, Claudia. Maybe the three of us can get together some time."
哎呀，这家伙已经拥有了一切。RA，大脑，妻子克劳迪娅。他甚至可能拥有一套地板平坦的公寓。这提醒我应该给斯蒂芬妮打电话。但第一顿午餐是在沃克。
Gee, this guy's got it all. R.A., brains, wife Claudia. He probably even has an apartment with a level floor. Which reminds me I should give Stephanie a call. But first lunch at Walker.
一个人吃饭并不好玩，但如果有课堂笔记可以翻阅，那就还可以了。看起来大约有一半的桌子都被一群人占据了，所以独自一人并没有太打扰我。此外，那天晚上还会有足球比赛和陪伴。
It's not fun to eat by yourself, but it's tolerable if you have the notes from your classes to look over. It seemed like about half the tables were occupied by parties of one, so it didn't bother me so much to be alone. Besides, there would be soccer and company that evening.
接下来的半个小时我在男厕所里生病了。如果你有课堂笔记可供查看，那是可以忍受的。它是什么？我想知道。我已经压力很大了吗？我真的应该在办公桌前抄写这些笔记。这里有什么故事？我得走了。
I spent the next half hour sick in the men's room. It's tolerable if you have the notes from your classes to look over. What is it? I wondered. Am I stressed out already? I should really be at my desk copying over these notes. What's the story here? I've got to get going.
抄写夏皮罗课堂上的笔记花了三个小时。这很辛苦，但他的文字很新鲜，我写下了我能记得的每一篇。就好像我遇见了摩西，他口授了十诫。这也是我知道我能做的事情。他提出的问题则是另一回事了。在完成抄写工作之前我不敢打开包裹。一次完成一项任务，先完成最简单的任务。
It took three hours to copy over the notes from Shapiro's class. It was painstaking, but his words were fresh and I wrote every one I could remember. It was as if I'd met Moses and he'd dictated the Ten Commandments. It was also something I knew I could do. The problems that he'd handed out were another story. I dared not crack the packet until I'd finished the transcribing job. Complete one task at a time, the easiest ones first.
火车正要离开车站。速度本来很慢，但很快就会加快。现在我可以在它旁边行走或小跑，但迟早我必须上车，否则我就会失去它。
The train was leaving the station. It was going slowly but would soon pick up speed. Now I could walk or trot beside it, but sooner or later I would have to get on board or I would lose it.
足球是一种受欢迎的缓解方式。我偶然遇到并招募了迈克尔·皮卡迪（Michael Picardi）。他想担任守门员。我的左脚射门不错，所以我自愿踢左翼。
Soccer was a welcome relief. I'd bumped into and recruited Michael Picardi; he wanted to play goalie. I had a decent shot with my left foot, so I volunteered to play left wing.
该足球队来自传热实验室，因此得名“热量”，源自古老的传热热量理论。来自墨西哥的卡洛斯·洛佩兹（论文主题：核电站管道中的蒸汽流动）将担任左中卫。Dave Orlowski（论文主题：半导体晶体生长中热传导的计算机模拟）担任教练和中锋；他即将完成博士学位。哈米德·雷扎 (Hamid Reza) 为吉夫托普洛斯 (Gyftopoulos) 从事量子热力学研究，并担任右后卫。罗宾·托马斯是另一种理论上的计算机类型。泰德·贝恩 (Ted Bain) 来自英国，正在为杰马耶勒研究流动液体中的沸腾问题。诺姆·杰森 (Norm Jason) 拥有流化床煤燃烧领域的 RA 学位，并正在为他在密歇根州的高级项目设计的安全梯申请专利。我觉得我立刻就加入了兄弟会。他们很友好，也很聪明，他们接受了我。
The soccer team was from the Heat Transfer Lab, hence the name Caloric, after the archaic caloric theory of heat transmission. Carlos Lopez (thesis topic: steam flow in piping in nuclear power plants) from Mexico would play left halfback. Dave Orlowski (thesis topic: computer simulation of heat conduction in semiconductor crystal growth) was the coach and center forward; he was about to finish his Ph.D. Hamid Reza worked on quantum thermodynamics for Gyftopoulos and played right fullback. Robin Thomas was another theoretical computer type. Ted Bain was from England and was working for Gemayel on boiling in a moving fluid. Norm Jason had an R.A. in fluidized bed coal combustion and was patenting the safety ladder he'd designed for his senior project at Michigan. I felt like I'd joined an instant fraternity. They were friendly and smart, and they accepted me.
从午后阳光下的操场上看，学院看起来很漂亮。两个圆顶并排排列，远处是高耸的绿色建筑——知识密包。
The institute looks lovely from the playing fields in the afternoon sun. The two domes line up beside each other with the highrise Green Building behind them both in the distance-a dense pack of knowledge.
感觉就像秋天一样。感觉就像高中一样。当我踢足球时，感觉一切都会好起来的。
It felt like fall. It felt like high school. It felt like things were going to be all right when I played soccer.
我打电话给斯蒂芬妮。
I called Stephanie.
“再见，”她说。
»Allo,« she said.
“致敬，切丽，我是我，佩珀。”
"Salut, cherie, it's moi, Pepper."
哦，Peppeur，你好吗？«
Oh, Peppeur, how are yoouu? «
“好吧，谢谢，但是事情变得很忙碌。听着，斯蒂芬妮，我一直想……”
"Fine, thanks, but things are becoming hectic. Say listen, Stephanie, I've been meaning to ..."
»我刚刚给你寄了一个爱心包裹。我们去的意大利面包店买了一些Godiva巧克力和一些饼干。«
»I juste sent you a care package. Some Godiva chocolates and some biscuits from the Italian bakery we go to. «
“噢，哇。谢谢。我说，我……呃。”
"Oh, wow. Thanks. Say, I ... uh."
“我爱你，胡椒。”
»Je t'aime, Peppeur.«
“我也爱你。”
"I love you, too."
回到 20 号楼。我的 TPP 办公桌至少还能再用几天，还有办公室的钥匙，因此可以使用沙发过夜。吉夫托普洛斯的讲义只花了两个小时就抄完了，其中包括我去大厅楼下的自动售货机买奶酪和花生酱饼干以及一杯加了额外奶油和糖的茶。这就留下了一些时间来研究大英百科全书中有关热力学的文章。
Back to Building 20. I had my TPP desk for at least a few more days, plus the key to the office and therefore access to the couch for staying over nights. Gyftopoulos's lecture notes took only two hours to copy, including my break to get cheese and peanut butter crackers and a cup of tea with extra cream and extra sugar from the vending machine down the hall. That left some time to crack into the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on thermodynamics.
它始于伽利略和他发明的第一个温度计。哎呀，那些文艺复兴时期的家伙什么都做了。然后在理性时代，布莱克发明了热量理论，我的足球队就是以此命名的，最后卡诺先生出现并发明了詹姆斯·瓦特发明的蒸汽机理论。然后克劳修斯完善了熵的概念，尽管他从未真正定义过它。它读起来很有趣，但对解决问题没有帮助。
It started with Galileo and the first thermometer that he invented. Gee, those Renaissance guys did everything. Then in the Age of Reason, Black invented the caloric theory after which my soccer team was named, and finally Monsieur Carnot came along and invented the theory for the steam engine that James Watt invented. Then Clausius perfected the concept of entropy, although he never really defined it. It made interesting reading but it wouldn't help on the problem set.
啊，是的，问题集。现在正是开始的最佳时机。打字工整。问题 1 看起来小菜一碟。“一个房间里有 10 桶油和足够的空气，以便油完全燃烧。燃烧后，这种油最多可以将 600 万英热单位/桶的热量转移到环境中的系统中。a. 如果燃烧发生时没有任何能量转移对于环境来说，房间内物品的总质量有什么变化？”
Ah yes, the problem set. No time like the present to get started. It was neatly typed. Problem 1 looked like a piece of cake. "A room contains 10 barrels of oil and adequate air for the complete combustion of the oil. Upon burning, this oil can transfer a maximum of 6 million btu/barrel to systems in the environment. a. If the combustion occurs without any energy transfer to the environment, what is the change in total mass of the contents of the room?"
小菜一碟。我想，房间是封闭的，就像一个封闭的系统，所以质量不会有任何变化。我的意思是它从哪里来？还是去？
Piece of cake. The room is closed, I guess, like a closed system, so there won't be any change in mass. I mean where's it going to come from? Or go to?
问题a的下一部分。“如果将最大能量转移到环境中，油气混合物和燃烧产物之间的质量变化是多少？”
Next part of question a. "What is the change in mass between the oil-air mixture and the products of combustion if the maximum energy is transferred to the environment?"
答：同样的事情。这有什么区别呢？质量仍然守恒。
Answer: Same thing. What difference does it make? Mass is still conserved.
“b. 如果铀 235 裂变每次裂变可产生 2 亿电子伏特的可转移能量，那么多少克 U-235 的能量相当于 10 桶石油？”
"b. If a uranium 235 fission can yield a transferrable energy of 200 million electron-volts per fission, how many grams of U-235 are the energy equivalent of 10 barrels of oil?"
说什么？他在演讲中没有提及任何有关U-235的内容。他把这个问题拉出来有什么关系呢？然后我想起来他也是核工程教授，班级也是核工程课。我记得这是麻省理工学院。这个问题的目的一定是向我们展示如何用微量的铀代替大量的石油。这基本上是将能量值从电子伏（物理学家测量能量的单位）转换为英国热量单位（Btus）（工程师测量能量的单位）的练习。
Say what? He didn't say anything about U-235 in the lecture. What business does he have pulling that out on the problem set? Then I remembered that he was also a nuclear engineering professor, and the class was also a nuclear engineering class. And I remembered that this was MIT. The point of this problem must be to show us what a piddly amount of uranium takes the place of a huge amount of oil. This is basically an exercise in converting the energy values from electron-volts, what physicists measure energy in, to British thermal units (Btus), what engineers measure energy in.
我计算了换算系数，得出的结果是不到一克，或者接近几粒盐的重量。核电。安全、清洁、可靠。
I cranked through the conversion factors and it came out to just less than a gram, or close to the weight of several grains of salt. Nuclear power. Safe, clean, reliable.
问题 2 看起来有点困难，而且已经是 10:30 了，所以我骑上自行车回家，回到奥尔斯顿一栋下垂的三层楼一楼的四居室公寓。你可以在走廊上滑着滑板从前到后而不用推，但每月 80 美元的价格很合适。我的床是吉姆·斯图尔特和我用绳子绑在他的旧黑斑羚上并从萨默维尔的二手家具店运来的床垫。那盏华丽的小台灯是麻省理工学院家具交易所里最便宜的一盏。我希望我的生活水平已经触底。
Problem 2 looked a little harder and it was already 10:30 so I hopped on my bike for home, a four-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a sagging triple-decker in Allston. You could skateboard down the hallway from the front to the back without pushing, but at $80 a month the price was right. My bed was a mattress that Jim Stuart and I had roped onto his old Impala and had driven from the used furniture store in Somerville. The flowery little table lamp was the cheapest one at the MIT furniture exchange. I hoped my standard of living was bottoming out.
我在附近的 7-11 便利店停下来吃了一份蜂蜜面包和一品脱巧克力牛奶的夜宵。热量很高，但这是我通过当天的劳动赢得的。7-11 门内侧的玻璃上映出了我的倒影。由于我的手在它身上工作，它的头发直立起来，看起来很疲惫。我想知道我是否会秃头。
I stopped in at the neighborhood Seven-Eleven for a latenight snack of a honey bun and a pint of chocolate milk. Highly caloric, but I'd earned it with my labors of the day. My reflection stared back from the glass on the inside of the Seven-Eleven door; its hair was standing straight up from running my hand through it doing my work, and it looked tired. I wondered whether I'd go bald.
在厨房的桌子上，我室友的猫在我的脚踝上发出咕噜声。
At the kitchen table my roommate's cat purred against my ankle.
“离我远点，猫。我现在不想被打扰。”我轻声说道，以免吵醒任何人。“我只想在这里阅读我的环球报上的搞笑漫画，享受我的蜂蜜面包和巧克力牛奶。” 我把猫推开，但它又回来了。
"Get away from me, cat. I don't want to be bothered now," I said softly so as not to wake anyone. "I just want to read the funnies in my Globe here and enjoy my honey bun and chocolate milk." I nudged the cat away but it came back.
“咕噜咕噜”，它依偎在我的小腿前面说道。
"Purrrpurrr," it said, nestling on the front of my shin.
“我警告你。你想搭便车，你就搭便车。”
"I'm warning you. You want to take a ride, you're going to take a ride."
“咕噜咕噜。”
"Purrrrpurrrr."
“有你在，我怎么能关注到本我巫师呢？”
"How can I pay attention to the Wizard of Id with you there?"
我轻轻地将猫举高了几英尺——也许更多，落地后它又用爪子在灰色的油毡地板上滑了几英寸。它又回来了，所以我想我没有伤害它。
I lofted the cat gently, a couple of feet-well, maybe moreso it slid on its claws on the gray linoleum floor another couple of inches after landing. It came back again, so I guess I didn't hurt it.
“咕噜咕噜。”
"Purrpurrrr."
9 月 11 日星期五
Friday, September 11
罗森诺的班上只有二十名学生。其中一些人三十多岁，是来自林恩通用电气公司的特殊学生，在职攻读硕士学位。一对夫妇在海军服役，正在攻读硕士学位。目的是给他们一些精神力量来应对国防工业顾问，这些顾问拥有麻省理工学院等机构的高级学位。其余的人都和我一样二十多岁。
There were only twenty students in Rohsenow's class. Some were in their thirties, special students coming in from General Electric in Lynn to get their master's degrees part-time. A couple were in the navy, in the master's program that they follow; the intent is to give them some mental firepower to deal with the defense industry consultants, who have high-powered degrees from places like MIT. The rest were in their mid-twenties like me.
两点五十五分。先进的传热。我在图书馆对罗森诺进行了背景调查，发现他创立并拥有 Dynatech，一家位于剑桥的研发公司。Dynatech 拥有约 950 名员工，年销售额为 5100 万美元。罗森诺现在六十多岁了，并获得了博士学位。战后不久在耶鲁大学。他的专长是沸水科学。如果您知道导致沸腾的原因，您就可以计算出核电站中水流过的管道的尺寸。你对沸腾了解得越多，你就能把管子做得越小，并且晚上仍然可以睡觉。如果管子更小，发电厂的成本就会更低，因此也是可行的。
Two fifty-five. Advanced Heat Transfer. I'd done a background check on Rohsenow in the library and found that he had founded and owned Dynatech, an R&D firm in Cambridge. Dynatech employed about 950 employees and had annual sales of $51 million. Rohsenow was in his sixties now and had received his Ph.D. at Yale just after the war. His specialty was the science of boiling water. If you know what causes boiling, you can figure out how big to make the tubes the water goes through in your nuclear power plant. The more you know about the boiling, the smaller you can make the tubes and still sleep at night. If the tubes are smaller, the power plant is less expensive, and therefore viable.
罗森诺身穿浅蓝色花呢夹克、深蓝色双层针织休闲裤、白色衬衫和蓝色领带。他秃顶，头发边缘有一点棕色的头发，戴着一副看起来不够坚固的眼镜。在开始上课之前，他将他们向前倾斜，眯着眼睛看房间后面的时钟。
Rohsenow wore a light blue tweed jacket, darker blue doubleknit slacks, white shirt, and blue tie. He was bald with a little brown hair around the edges and wore glasses that seemed not quite strong enough; before he started the class, he tilted them forward and squinted to see the clock at the back of the room.
“好吧，我想是时候开始了，”他说着，把烟斗放在桌子上的笔记旁边。“首先，我想回顾一下一些内务管理细节。我们整理了一系列问题供您完成。我们不对它们进行评分，因为我们宁愿有时间让您提问。” （或者是为了你利润丰厚的咨询工作，我想。）“每个问题的解决方案都会张贴在教室外的黑板上，这样你就可以去那里检查自己的工作。杰米·穆罕默德（Jamie Mohammed）将担任这里的助教；一旦一周他将进行辅导，你可以向他询问有关作业的问题。”
"Well, I guess it's time to get started," he said, setting his pipe on the table by his notes. "First I'd like to go over some housekeeping details. We've put together a package of problems for you to do. We don't grade them because we'd rather have that time available for you to ask questions." (Or for your lucrative consulting jobs, I thought.) "The solutions for each problem will be posted on the board outside the classroom, so you can go there and check your own work. Jamie Mohammed here will be the teaching assistant; once a week he'll conduct a tutorial where you can ask him questions about the assignments."
“哦，还有关于成绩，”他继续说道。“杰米和我在学期结束时聚在一起，我们讨论你是否有良好的性格。如果你有，我们会给你 A。”
"Oh, and about grades," he continued. "Jamie and I get together at the end of the term and we discuss whether or not you have a nice personality. If you do we give you an A."
一阵紧张的笑声传来。他说话缓慢、从容，声音柔和、低沉，在妙语处停顿。
There was nervous laughter. He spoke slowly, deliberately, with a soft, deep voice and pauses at the punch lines.
“实际上，我们进行了两次测验，每次一小时，最后一次测验，三小时。如果你在小时测验中表现更好，我们会更重视它们。如果你在期末测验中表现更好，我们会说，‘万岁”，他终于明白了，”我们更重视它。如果你在这两方面都做得不好，那么，总有商学院。”
"Actually, we give two quizzes, each an hour long, and a final quiz, three hours long. If you do better on the hour quizzes, we weight them more heavily. If you do better on the final, we say, 'Hooray, he finally got it,' and we weight it more heavily. If you don't do well on either, well, there's always business school."
笑声更加紧张。
More nervous laughter.
“现在谈谈今天的课程材料。” 他拿起烟斗并试图点燃它。
"Now about the course material for the day." He picked up his pipe and tried to light it.
“解决任何问题都有几种方法。你可以用快速的方法来解决，并得到准确度在 20% 以内的答案，或者你可以通过计算机来解决，花两周的时间进行设置，并得到准确的答案2%以内。”
"There's a couple of ways to do any problem. You can do it the fast way, and get an answer that's accurate within 20 percent, or you can do it by computer, take two weeks setting it up, and get an answer that's accurate within 2 percent."
“现在你们，”强调自己，停顿，“想当老板。我会告诉你们快速的方法。你们会在五分钟内做到这一点，然后当你的助理来的时候把它从袖子里拿出来问你一个问题。你会看着他提出的图表并对他说，“应该朝这边走，而不是那边”，他会认为你很聪明......让我想起一个故事。里科弗给我讲了这个故事。你知道，海曼·里科弗海军上将，核海军之父。他让一个年轻人为他工作。这孩子眼睛明亮，尾巴浓密，直接从安纳波利斯出来。里科弗让他设计这个热交换器，用船上烟囱排出的废气加热水。自从我教给他以来，海曼就有了我要向你展示他的技巧。他知道热交换器应该是，比如说，和这个房间一样大。”
"Now you guys," accent on the you, pause, "want to be the boss. I'll show you the fast way. You'll do that in five minutes, and then pull it out of your sleeve when your assistant comes to ask you a question. You'll look at the graph he came up with and say to him, 'It should go this way, not that way,' and he'll think you're smart.... Reminds me of a story. Rickover told it to me. You know, Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear navy. He had this young guy working for him. The kid was all brighteyed and bushy-tailed, straight out of Annapolis. Rickover gets him to design this heat exchanger to heat water with exhaust from the ship's smokestack. Since I'd taught it to him, Hyman had the trick I'm about to show you up his sleeve. He knew the heat exchanger should be about, say, as big as this room."
罗森诺吸了几口烟斗，然后挥动手臂表示房间的大小。
Rohsenow puffed on his pipe a couple of times and waved his arm around to indicate the size of the room.
“所以这孩子带着他的电脑走了，一周后回来告诉里科弗热交换器应该和整艘船一样大。哈哈哈，”他咯咯地笑着。
"So the kid goes off with his computer and comes back a week later and tells Rickover the heat exchanger should be about as big as the whole ship. Ha ha ha," he chortled.
这孩子现在自己也是海军上将了。但别担心；我也教他这个技巧。”
The kid's an admiral himself now. But don't worry; I taught him the trick, too."
那天晚上，我独自一人在 TPP 办公室里，努力完成了一些热作业。我想，这与我在商学院或法学院读到和听到的不同。我们都在上自己的课程，大部分都是自己上的。我们必须通过搜索自己的知识、通过推理、通过查书来学习。
That night I plowed through some more thermo homework, alone in the TPP office. This isn't like what I'd read and heard about business or law school, I thought. We're all taking our individual courses, mostly on our own. We have to learn by searching our own knowledge, by reasoning, by looking things up in books.
11点30分，我向窗外望去，看到发电厂烟囱冒出的羽流。烟囱缓缓向上汇聚。羽流稍微弯曲，在东剑桥犯罪率高的天空中划出一道滚滚的白橙色弧线。我想了解关于这条弧线的一切，以及如何减少它。
At 11:30 I looked out the window at the plume from the power plant's smokestack. The stack converged gently upward. The plume bent over slightly and made a billowing white-orange arc across the high-crime-lit sky of East Cambridge. I wanted to know everything about that arc, how to make less of it.
我把橄榄褐色睡袋铺到办公室沙发上，抓起椅垫当枕头，然后调到时钟收音机上 WBUR 上的拉丁音乐。一列由内燃机车牵引的油罐车缓缓驶过，距离近得足以让大楼摇晃；主街平交路口的钟叮叮叮地响了。火车停在发电厂。
I unrolled the olive drab sleeping bag onto the office couch, grabbed a chair cushion for a pillow, and tuned to the Latin music on WBUR on the clock radio. A train of oil tank cars pulled by a diesel locomotive rolled by slowly, close enough to shake the building; the Main Street grade crossing bell ding ding dinged. The train stopped at the power plant.
我想知道斯蒂芬妮怎么样。
I wondered how Stephanie was.
章节
C H A P T E R
3
3
休息
Break
星期二 10/6/81
Tuesday 10/6/81
亲爱的妈妈+爸爸：
Dear Ma + Pa,
抱歉这么久没写。我现在写得很快。课程继续快速进行。从周五开始每周第一次测试。周五，我和我的传热教授聊了两个小时，通过向他提出了很多关于讲座材料的具体问题，得到了一些好主意……包括一些他不知道如何回答的问题。我还提请他注意他书中已有二十年的拼写错误。
Sorry for not writing for so long. I'm writing now very fast. Classes continue to move at fast pace. First test a week from Friday. I talked to my heat transfer prof for two hours on friday got some good Ideas by asking him lots of specific questions on lecture mat'l ... including a few he didn't know how to answer. I also brought to his attention a typo that had been in his book for twenty years.
我以 180 美元的价格卖掉了我的场地自行车，所以现在我绝对可以毫无问题地度过这个学期。我们又踢了足球，以 1-0 获胜。很有意思; 我觉得我的体形正在恢复正常。
I sold my track bike for $180 so now I definitely can make it through this term sans probleme. We played soccer again, winning 1-0. Lots of fun; I feel like I'm getting into reasonable shape.
现在的惯例是 6:30 起床，沿着查尔斯河骑行到麻省理工学院，现在日出很美，看到工作人员在查斯河上划船。在那一刻。波士顿市中心的美景，阳光透过建筑物，远处的光线呈橙色。然后在餐厅阅读丰盛的早餐。然后学习或写信（这大约是第一次）。然后上课然后学习。我在餐厅吃完午饭后，晚上 10:00 左右离开。晚餐=大楼内的自动售货机。学习非常多，努力掌握概念。
Routine is now get up at 6:30, ride in along Charles River to MIT, great sunrises now, see crews rowing up the Chas. at that hour. Nice view of downtown Boston, with sun coming through buildings, light very orange in distance. Then read then big breakfast at dining hall. Then study or write letters (this is about the first time). Then classes then study. I leave at about 10:00 P.m. after lunch in dining hall. Dinner = vending machines in Building. Learning very much, striving to master concepts.
一位教授拥有节能咨询公司，因此也许即将有工作机会。
One prof has consulting firm in energy conservation so maybe job possibility in offing.
得走了。
Gotta go.
爱，辣椒
Love, Pepper
TPP 办公室。8:00 AM
TPP Office. 8:00 A. M.
9 月 12 日星期六
Saturday, September 12
热，问题 3
Thermo, Problem 3
“日常生活中的一项重要任务是从地下井中抽水。除其他方法外，这可以通过人力或机器来完成。我们希望比较这两种从地下井抽水 10,000 加仑的方法的能源成本。深度为 300 英尺。假设一个人吃的是鸡蛋。
"An important task in everyday life is the pumping of water from underground wells. Among other methods, this can be carried out either by human effort or by a machine. We wish to compare the energy costs of these two methods of pumping 10,000 gallons from a depth of 300 feet. Assume that a person is fed with eggs.
“一个鸡蛋提供 80 公斤卡路里 (kcal)（对于外行人来说是卡路里）的能量，每打成本约为 1.20 美元。人体通过使用踏板驱动的踏板将热量食物转化为肌肉力量的效率约为 25%类似于固定自行车的装置。
"An egg provides 80 kilogram-calories (kcal) (a.k.a. calories to the layperson) of energy and costs about $1.20 per dozen. The human body transforms caloric food into muscle power with an efficiency of about 25 percent, by using a pedal-powered apparatus similar to a stationary bicycle.
“汽油发动机将燃料转化为动力的效率约为 25%。汽油可提供约 20,000 Btu/磅质量，价格约为每加仑 3.00 美元（在美国以外的大多数地方）。
"A gasoline engine transforms fuel into motive power with an efficiency of about 25 percent. Gasoline can make available about 20,000 Btu/pound-mass and is priced at about $3.00 per gallon (in most places except the United States).
“a. 求这两种抽水方法各自的能源成本。”
"a. Find the energy cost of each of these two methods of pumping the water."
回答。这还是高中刚毕业的时候。如果他们保持这样，我就不会有任何问题。只需计算将 10,000 加仑的水提升 300 英尺所需的能量即可。然后计算出所需的鸡蛋数量，同时考虑到每个鸡蛋的能量含量和鸡蛋转化效率。（405 个鸡蛋。）汽油也是如此。（1.10 加仑。）我宁愿吃四百个鸡蛋也不愿喝一加仑汽油。
Answer. This is still right out of high school. If they stay like this I'll have no problems. Just calculate the amount of energy required to raise the 10,000 gallons of water the 300 feet. Then figure out the number of eggs required, taking into account the energy content of each egg and the efficiency of egg conversion. (405 eggs.) Ditto for the gasoline. (1.10 gallons.) I'd rather eat four hundred eggs than drink a gallon of gasoline.
“b. 通过考虑其他食品并在近似计算中包括资本和劳动力成本，您会推荐两种抽水方式中的哪一种？用一段左右的时间表达您的考虑和建议。”
"b. By considering other foodstuffs and including in your approximate calculations both capital and labor costs, which of the two ways of pumping water would you recommend? Express your considerations and recommendations in a paragraph or so."
我想，这又很容易。计算出四分之一马力的人大约需要 50 小时；每小时 4 美元，相当于一个人 200 美元。再加上 40 美元左右的鸡蛋，你就有 240 美元。我认为自行车装置和发动机的成本大约相同。那么对于人类来说，它的成本大约是泵的 73 倍。
This again is easy, I thought. Figure about 50 hours for the quarter-horsepower person; at $4 an hour that's about $200 for the person. Add to that the $40 or so for the eggs, and you have $240. I'll figure the bicycle apparatus and the engine would cost about the same. Then it comes to about 73 times as expensive for the human as for the pump.
第 4 题中途，迈克尔·皮卡迪 (Michael Picardi) 走进办公室。“你想去看‘天空艺术’展览吗？” 他问。
Halfway through Problem 4 Michael Picardi came into the office. "Do you want to go see the 'Sky Art' exhibit?" he asked.
“当然。‘天空艺术’展览是什么？” 我回答了。
"Sure. What's the 'Sky Art' exhibit?" I answered.
“他们正在学生中心的四合院里展示各种空中雕塑。来自新英格兰各地的各种艺术家正在展示他们的作品。如果我们现在去，我们可以赶上‘天空水母’的发射。”
"They're displaying various airborne sculptures in the quadrangle by the student center. Various artists from around New England are exhibiting their work. If we go now, we can catch the launch of the 'Sky Jellyfish.' "
“听起来很有趣。我们走吧，”我说。
"Sounds interesting. Let's go," I said.
艺术家准备发射天空水母。他让迈克尔、我和另外五个人抓住天触手的末端，同时用氦气给碗状的身体充气。这东西扩大到了莱维敦后院游泳池的大小。它全部由银色和红色聚酯薄膜制成，这是包裹卫星的坚韧塑料。
The artist prepared the sky-jellyfish for launch. He enlisted Michael, me, and five others to hold onto the ends of the skytentacles, while he inflated the bowl-shaped body with helium. The thing expanded to about the size of a backyard swimming pool in Levittown. It was all made of silver and red Mylar, the tough plastic they wrap satellites with.
“你能相信他们称之为艺术吗？” 我对迈克尔说。
"Can you believe they call this art?" I said to Michael.
“注意，”迈克尔说。“快到发射时间了。”
"Pay attention," Michael said. "It's almost time for launch."
艺术家说：“现在我要完成这个充气工作，然后我们将从五开始倒计时。当倒计时为零时，每个人都松开手中的东西。”
The artist said, "Now I'm going to finish inflating this and then we'll have the countdown from five. When we get to zero, everyone let go of what they're holding."
“五、四、三、二、一”我们齐声喊道。
"Five, four, three, two, one," we all chanted in unison.
“升空，”穿着 NASA T 恤的家伙说道。
"Lift-off," said the guy wearing the NASA T-shirt.
在 T+15 秒时，我对迈克尔说：“我会死心塌地的。它看起来确实像水母。只要看看触手和身体漂浮和摆动的方式即可。那家伙一定已经计算了所有这些东西，厚度聚酯薄膜的厚度、体内氦气和空气的混合物、触手的长度和宽度。”
At T plus 15 seconds I said to Michael, "I'll be doggoned. It does look like a jellyfish. Just look at the way the tentacles and the body are floating and oscillating. The guy must have calculated all that stuff, the thickness of the Mylar, the mixture of helium and air in the body, the length and width of the tentacles."
“是的，要么就是这样，要么他很幸运。我们只希望麦拉不会击落一架‘空中巨型喷气式飞机’，”迈克尔说。“请问，你饿了吗？想和我一起吃沙拉三明治吗？”
"Yeah, either that or he's lucky. Let's just hope all that Mylar doesn't bring down a 'sky-jumbo-jet,' " Michael said. "Say, are you hungry? Would you like to join me for a falafel?"
“当然。自从两个月前来到伊斯坦布尔以来，我就没有吃过沙拉三明治了。”
"Sure. I haven't had a falafel since I was in Istanbul two months ago."
“你去了伊斯坦布尔？你参观过圣索非亚大教堂吗？这座奉献智慧的教堂？”
"You went to Istanbul? Did you see Hagia Sofia, the church dedicated to wisdom?"
“是的。很漂亮。”
"Yes. It was beautiful."
迈克尔继续说道，“我永远不会忘记我的艺术史教授展示的幻灯片。‘注意他们如何隐藏圆顶的支撑手段，’他说。‘注意在天花板高耸的垂直度下闪烁的光线舞蹈。’ 光笔真的会发光吗？”
Michael continued, "I'll never forget the slides my Art History professor showed. 'Note how they hid the means of support of the dome,' he said. 'Note the shimmering pencils of light dancing beneath the ceiling's soaring verticality.' Did the pencils of light really shimmer?"
“是的，它们闪闪发光。你知道它的神奇之处吗？你认为建造它需要多长时间？”
"Yes, they shimmered all right. And you know the amazing thing about it? How long do you think it took to build it?"
“五十年，一百年？”
"Fifty years, a hundred years?"
“尝试了一年半。他们用了五世纪的神奇材料：砖块。当他们完成时，它是世界上最大的教堂。”
"Try a year and a half. They did it with the wonder material of the fifth century: brick. It was the largest church in the world when they finished it."
足球比赛于周日上午 8 点 30 分在 C 场举行，位于网球泡沫区之外。他们将校内比赛安排在周日早上。这样周日下午和晚上就可以自由工作了。
The soccer game was at 8:30 Sunday morning on field C, beyond the tennis bubble. They schedule the intramural games for Sunday morning. That leaves Sunday afternoon and evening free for work.
麻省理工学院的校内活动很盛行——它们是为数不多的集体活动之一。团队代表不同的群体、支持结构。有些衬衫上印有兄弟会的希腊字母，有些衬衫上印有实验室或研究生院的名称，有些衬衫上印有国家名称——希腊、土耳其、智利、韩国，以及任何站在我们一边并拥有工业基地的国家。
Intramurals are big at MIT-they're one of the few instances of group activity. Teams represent the various groups, the support structures. Some shirts had the Greek letters of fraternities embossed onto them, others the names of labs or graduate departments, and some the names of countries-Greece, Turkey, Chile, Korea, any country that's on our side and has an industrial base.
我们团队中那些在麻省理工学院工作了几年的人都穿着褪色的红色衬衫，胸前写着褪色的黄色卡路里。进入博士学位的最后几年，第四、第五、第六、第七年。研究表明，他们通常不会像二十多岁的职业运动员那样优雅地变老。有几个人已经开始或已经脱发。超过一半的人戴着眼镜；大腹便便很常见。我想知道麻省理工学院是否也会对我做同样的事情。
The guys on our team who'd been at MIT for several years had faded red shirts with faded yellow Caloric written on the chest. Into the latter years, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, of their Ph.D. research, they hadn't as a rule aged as gracefully as professional athletes in their late twenties. Several had started or finished losing their hair. Over half wore glasses; potbellies were common. I wondered whether MIT would do the same to me.
当 Aquanauts 队与 Dixie Chickens 队结束比赛时，我们 15 个人站在 C 场的场边。四个校内联赛：A、B、C 和 D 联赛，以您在班级中取得的成绩命名。甲A联赛最好，主要是外国人；B联赛由外国人加上一些骑师兄弟会组成；C 主要是实验室团队和兄弟会，外国人浓度较低。D联赛是宿舍用的。
The fifteen of us stood on the sidelines of field C while the Aquanauts finished their game with the Dixie Chickens. The four intramural divisions, A-, B-, C-, and D-league, are named after the grades you get in your classes. A-league is the best, composed mostly of foreigners; B-league is foreigners plus some of the jockier frats; C is mostly lab teams and frats with lower concentrations of foreigners. D-league is for dorms.
我们的对手是TEP，一个来自河对岸的兄弟会。比赛一开始，我们就奋力拼搏，顺利通过。TEP作为本科生，并没有忘记如何跑步。我感觉自己处于这两个群体的中间——不像兄弟会男孩那么有活力，但肯定比许多卡路里人更有活力。
Our opponent was TEP, a frat from across the river. Once we started, we fought hard and passed well. TEP, as undergraduates, had not forgotten how to run. I felt in the middle of the two groups-not as vigorous as the frat boys but certainly more so than many of the Calorics.
天气晴朗，风很大，下半场风向朝我们的方向吹。当我距离球门 30 码时，左中卫罗宾给了我一个传球，我用左脚将球切入。球向上，向上，飞走了，风带着它飞向球门，远角——但球击中了横梁顶部，越过了端线，TEP踢出了球门球。嗯好吧，那就下次再说吧。
It was clear and windy and in the second half the wind was going our way. Robin, the left halfback, gave me a tap of a pass while I was 30 yards out from the goal and I chipped the ball with my left foot. Up, up, and away it went, the wind carrying it toward the goal, the far corner-but it hit the top of the crossbar, went past the end line, and TEP kicked a goal kick. Oh well, maybe next time.
最终我们仍然以卡洛斯上半场进球1-0领先。我们都双手围成一圈，一起喊：“啊啊啊啊TEP！” 向我们被击败的对手致敬。
In the end we were still ahead by 1-0 from the goal Carlos had scored in the first half. We all put our hands in a circle and shouted together, "Rah, rah, rah, TEP!" to salute our vanquished opponents.
我们几个人拿起自行车，走向洛布德尔自助餐厅吃早餐。我把我的车锁在标牌附近，上面写着：残疾人坡道：禁止自行车停车；栏杆上还有另外三辆自行车，所以我认为没关系。即使是周日早上，我也不想浪费时间寻找另一个地方来停放自行车。
Several of us picked up our bicycles and walked toward the Lobdell cafeteria for breakfast. I locked mine near the sign that read, HANDICAPPED RAMP: NO BICYCLE PARKING; there were three other bikes on the railing, so I figured it was all right. Even though it was Sunday morning I didn't want to waste time looking for another place to leave the bike.
我对卡洛斯说：“射得很好。你以前好像踢过足球。”
I said to Carlos, "That was a good shot. You seem to have played soccer before."
“是的，嗯，我在墨西哥的大学里打过一点球，”他说。他和我一样粗壮，有一头黑发，长度和 1965 年约翰·列侬的头发差不多。
"Yes, well, I played a little at university in Mexico," he said. He was husky like me and had dark hair about the length John Lennon's was in 1965.
我问他在麻省理工学院呆了多久，是否找到了资金，是否认识有钱的教授。
I asked him how long he'd been at MIT, whether he'd found funding, whether he knew any professors who had money.
“我去年春天来到这里，”他说，“获得了墨西哥政府的奖学金。只要我表现足够好，可以留在这里，我就有学生签证。我的论文主题是研究水滴对蒸汽管道的侵蚀。”在管道弯头中。你知道吗？去年春天是我一生中最艰难的时期。我很难相信我属于这里；我想也许我被录取只是侥幸。而我一直在想我班上的每个人都必须比我聪明。如果每个人都比我聪明，那就意味着无论我在考试中表现如何，我都会低于平均水平。如果我低于平均水平，我就会得到 C我会回到墨西哥城。你知道我在说什么吗？”
"I came here last spring," he said, "on a scholarship from the Mexican government. As long as I do well enough to stay here I have a student visa. My thesis subject is a study of erosion in steam piping by water droplets in pipe elbows. You know something? Last spring was the toughest time I've had in my life. I had a hard time believing I belonged here; I thought maybe my being admitted was a fluke. And the whole time I am thinking that everybody in my classes must be smarter than I am. If everyone is smarter than I am, that means no matter how well I do on the test, I'll be below average. If I'm below average, I'll get C's and I'll be back in Mexico City. Do you know what I'm saying?"
“是的，我想我知道你在说什么，”我回答道。“我们聊点别的吧。”
"Yes, I think I know what you're saying," I answered. "Let's talk about something else."
我们和桌子另一端的人一起自我祝贺，回顾了比赛的具体情况。我们一致认为在进攻和防守上都需要更多地追球。
We joined the self-congratulation of the guys at the other end of the table, the play-by-play of the game in review. We agreed on the need to go after the ball more both on offense and on defense.
我的目光穿过马萨诸塞大道，看到了两个巨大的圆顶、即将进入绿色季节结束的树木，以及 7 号楼的爱奥尼亚柱。7 号楼挡住了绿色大楼的视线，所以我只能看到屋顶上的天气球。屋顶和顶部有闪光灯的梯子。7 号楼的檐口上刻有“麻省理工学院。威廉·巴顿·罗杰斯，创始人”的铭文。u 看起来像 v，因为 u 不是罗马人发明的。
My eyes wandered across Massachusetts Avenue to the two great domes, the trees nearing the end of their green season, and the Ionic columns of Building 7. Building 7 blocked the view of the Green Building, so I could just see the weather sphere on the roof, and the ladder with a strobe light on top. The cornice on Building 7 bore the inscription "Massachussetts Institute of Technology. William Barton Rogers, Founder." The u's looked like v's because the Romans didn't invent u's.
我不知道我是否可以和我的队友一起做研究，或者在我们一起上的课程中获得A，但至少在足球方面，我属于正确的联盟。
I didn't know whether I could do research with my team mates, or score A's in classes we might take together, but at least in soccer, I was in the right league.
星期一早上。办公桌的传奇。夏洛特·埃文斯 (Charlotte Evans) 是机械工程部秘书。她三十多岁，金发碧眼，迷人，优雅地老去，就像劳伦·白考尔一样。她的口音来自昆西或者斯托纳姆。
Monday morning. The saga of the desk. Charlotte Evans was the Mechanical Engineering secretary. She was in her late thirtiesblonde, attractive, and aging gracefully, like Lauren Bacall. Her accent was from Quincy or maybe Stoneham.
她的办公室是罗森诺办公室的前厅。她对这个系及其规则的了解与罗森诺或任何其他教授一样甚至更好。我必须向夏洛特·埃文斯提出钥匙的请求。她有一个橡皮图章，上面有罗森诺的签名，并有权使用它来解决较小的问题。由她来决定什么是较小的问题，所以她几乎拥有与罗森诺本人一样大的权力。
Her office was the antechamber to Rohsenow's. She knew the department and its rules as well as or better than Rohsenow or any of the other professors. It was Charlotte Evans to whom I would have to make my request for a key. She had a rubber stamp with Rohsenow's signature on it and the authority to use it for the lesser issues. It was up to her to decide what was a lesser issue, so she had almost as much power as Rohsenow himself.
“我是马特·阿姆斯特朗的朋友，”我站在审判席前说道，“我还没有 RA，但马特说他的办公室里有一张额外的桌子。我刚刚离开技术部门，政策规定，所以我在前台部门处于无人区。”
"I'm a friend of Matt Armstrong," I said, standing before the seat of judgment, "and I don't have an R.A. yet, but Matt said there's an extra desk in his office. I've just left Technology and Policy, so I'm kind of in no-man's-land in the desk department."
“首先你需要这个，”她轻快地说，拿出一套装订好的复印件。“这是所有正在进行的研究项目的清单。你应该仔细查看该清单，找出在最接近你感兴趣的领域谁拥有最多的资金。这些人总是与他们的行业联系人达成交易，并且他们在国防部或能源部的伙伴。有时他们立即需要帮助，如果你继续追捕他们，最终你会在正确的时间出现在正确的地点，并获得资金。另外，请密切关注部门时事通讯；有时他们会在那里发布职位空缺。” 她的自信和力量令人欣慰，几乎像母亲一样。
"First you need this," she said briskly, pulling out a stapled set of xeroxes. "This is a list of all the ongoing research projects. You should look through the list and find out who's got the most money in the area closest to what you're interested in. These guys are always closing on deals with their industry contacts and their buddies at the Department of Defense or Energy. Sometimes they need help right away, and if you keep hounding them, eventually you'll be in the right place at the right time and you'll get funding. Also, keep an eye on the department newsletter; sometimes they post their openings there." Her confidence and strength were comforting, almost motherly.
“现在我还得告诉你一件事，”她继续说道。“这里的教授可能是混蛋。但请记住，仅仅因为他们比你经历过更多的磨难，并不意味着他们就成为更好的人。” 她从小绿色金属文件盒中取出两张橙色索引卡，并在每张上写下我的名字；她在底部盖上了罗森诺的签名。
"Now there's something else I should tell you," she continued. "The professors here can be jerks. But remember that just because they've made it through more hoops than you have, that doesn't make them better people." She took two orange index cards out of the little green metal file box and typed my name on each; she stamped Rohsenow's signature on the bottom.
“把房间号和门锁上的号码填好，带到E-51号楼四楼的钥匙办公室。如果那里或实验室里的人给你找麻烦，请让他们来找我。” ”。
"Fill these out with the room number and the numbers on the lock and take them to the key office on the fourth floor of Building E- 51. If anyone there or in the lab gives you any trouble, tell them to come talk to me."
有一个有权势的人在我身边真是太好了。
It was good to have a powerful person on my side.
周一下午我去听了艾伦·格林关于能源工程的第一场讲座。从目录中的描述来看，这门课程完全符合我想要从麻省理工学院学到的东西。
Monday afternoon I went to Allen Greene's first lecture on Energy Engineering. From its description in the catalog, this course was right on the money for what I wanted out of MIT.
他以一个例子开始了他的演讲。“假设该国想要大规模生产汽油醇，一种由玉米衍生的酒精和汽油的混合物。如果这样做，需要什么？拖拉机需要燃料来种植和收获玉米。你需要投资拖拉机。你需要投资精炼厂来生产酒精。这些生产因素中的每一个都会产生内部和外部的经济影响。例如，其他谷物的价格可能会随着生产的增加而上涨。本来可以种植它们的田地变得无法使用。这是一种微观经济现象，我们可以对其进行建模。
He started his lecture with an example. "Suppose that the country wants to go into gasohol, a mixture of corn-derived alcohol and gasoline, in a big way. If it did, what would be needed? You'd need fuel for the tractor to plant and harvest the corn. You'd need an investment in tractors. And you'd need an investment in refineries for the alcohol production. Each of these production factors has an internal and an external economic impact. For example, the price of other grains may go up as the fields that would have otherwise been planted with them are made unavailable. That's a microeconomic phenomenon, and we can model it.
“同样，我们可以利用各种组件的效率和这些组件的成本对各个子系统内的流程进行建模。设备的大量投资可能会推高某些材料的价格。我们也可以对此进行建模。然后我们可以采取所有我们构建的模型，把它们联系起来，测试它们对各种参数的敏感性。然后我们作为决策者可以进行价值评估，以确定我们的研发资金应该流向哪里——我们可以确定哪些是关键的限速问题”。
"Similarly, we can model the processes within the various subsystems, using efficiencies of the various components and costs of those components. Heavy investments in equipment may drive up prices in certain materials. We can model that as well. Then we can take all the models that we've constructed, link them, and test them for sensitivities to various parameters. Then we as decision makers can make value assessments to determine where our research and development funding should go-we can determine what are the key rate-limiting problems."
正确的。了解什么是模型确实很有帮助。
Right. It would really help to know what a model is.
不过，能听到这样实用的讲座还是很好的。格林身上有一种中西部的务实态度，这种现实世界的倾向一定是由于他在联合碳化物公司担任研发副总裁期间造成的。
It was good, though, to hear such a practically oriented lecture. Greene had a sort of middlewestern down-to-earthiness about him, a real-world slant that must have been partly due to his stint as vice president for research and development at Union Carbide.
讲座结束后，我走上讲台向他请教有关课程的建议。我说：“我对你教的东西很感兴趣，但是这个学期我还有另外三门课，课已经满了。你觉得我报名参加你的课、旁听讲座并参加你的课程怎么样？”一个不完整的。然后我可以花一整个月的时间来做一个课堂作业项目。”
After the lecture, I went up to the podium to ask him for advice about the class. I said, "I'm really interested in what you're teaching, but I've got three other classes this term that are a full load. What would you think of my signing up for your class, auditing the lectures, and taking an incomplete. Then I could devote all of January to doing a project for the class work."
“这听起来不太诚实，”他回答道。
"That doesn't really sound honest," he answered.
“欢迎你旁听课程，虽然如果你不做作业可能会浪费时间。你为什么不一月份回到我的办公室，我们可以讨论你做一个独立学习的事情春季学期在我的指导下进行项目。”
"You're welcome to audit the class, although it might be a waste of time if you're not doing the homework. Why don't you come back to my office in January, and we can talk about your doing an independent study project under my direction in the spring term."
“听起来不错，”我说。“我现在就放弃你的课，几个月后回来和你说话。”
"That sounds good," I said. "I'll drop your class now and come back to talk to you in a few months."
10 月 6 日星期二
Tuesday, October 6
我需要 Thermo 中问题集 3 的问题 4 的帮助。在问题集 1 上，我答对了 60 分中的 48 分（我和马特核对了我的答案，他告诉我有 15 分的错误；我在 Gyftopoulos 的讲座期间进行了更正）。我在没有 Matt 帮助的情况下完成了问题集 2，并在 50 分中得到了 36 分。尽可能接近 100% 的问题集分数是个好主意，因为它们占成绩的 15%。每个人大约要花十五到二十个小时，但测验会涉及更严重的时间压力，我可能会被噎住。问题集可以是礼物点。
I needed help on Problem 4 of Problem Set 3 in Thermo. I'd had 48 out of 60 correct on Problem Set 1 (I'd checked my answers with Matt, and he'd tipped me off to 15 points worth of errors; I made the correction during Gyftopoulos's lecture). I'd done Problem Set 2 without help from Matt and had 36 out of 50. It would be a good idea to get as close as possible to 100 percent on the problem set points since they constituted 15 percent of the grade. Each ate up about fifteen to twenty hours, but the quizzes would involve more acute time pressure and I might choke on them. The problem sets could be gift points.
吉夫托普洛斯说他办公室的门总是开着的，所以我决定接受他的意见。他看起来很和善，就像霍普金斯大学的沃克教授一样。沃克教授教授新生物理，并鼓励学生到他的办公室提出任何他们想问的问题。对他来说，没有什么问题是太愚蠢的。我对吉夫托普洛斯的期望也是如此。
Gyftopoulos had said his office door was always open, so I decided to take him up on it. He seemed kindly, like Professor Walker at Hopkins. Professor Walker taught freshman physics and encouraged students to come to his office and ask any question they wanted to. No question was too dumb for him. I expected the same with Gyftopoulos.
但这是研究生院。那是麻省理工学院。
But this was graduate school. And it was MIT.
此时已是四点一刻，乌云密布，看起来更像是黄昏。外面开始变冷了。他的秘书敲了敲门上的窗户，吉夫托普洛斯示意我进去。他给牛津大学的一位同事写了一封信。“我期待在一月份在马赛举行的核热力学会议上见到您。此致，埃利亚斯。”
It was quarter to four and the clouds made it seem more like dusk. It was beginning to be cold outside. His secretary knocked on the window in his door and Gyftopoulos motioned me in. He finished recording a letter to a colleague at Oxford. "And I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Nuclear Thermodynamics Conference in Marseilles in January. Sincerely, Elias."
我坐在他柚木办公桌前的柚木椅子上。他问道：“佩珀，到目前为止，你对麻省理工学院的了解怎么样？”
I sat in the teak chair in front of his teak desk. He asked, "How are you finding MIT so far, Pepper?"
“我发现这项工作很有挑战性，尤其是在你的课程中。我花了很多时间在习题上，十五或二十个小时。”
"I'm finding the work challenging, especially in your course. I'm spending a lot of time on the problem sets, fifteen or twenty hours."
“那很好。我对习题集进行评分的原因之一是鼓励学生在我的课上多做一些功课，而不是在其他课上。我觉得掌握热力学基础知识对于一名优秀的工程师至关重要。现在，具体可以做什么？今天我给你做吗？” 他问。
"That's good. One of the reasons I have the problem sets graded is to encourage students to work on my class more than on their others. I feel that mastery of the fundamentals of thermodynamics is essential for a good engineer. Now, what specifically can I do for you today?" he asked.
“嗯，我在三个不同温度下的三块金属块的问题上遇到了一点麻烦。这就是你要问的问题，如果你以最有效的方式将热量从一个金属块转移到另一个金属块，那么“其中一个方块可以达到的最高温度。我真的不知道从哪里开始，我想知道你是否可以帮忙，”我说。
"Well, I'm having a little trouble with the problem with the three blocks of metal at three different temperatures. This is the one where you ask that if you move heat from one to another in the most efficient way possible, what is the maximum temperature one of the blocks can reach. I don't really know where to start with this and I wondered whether you could help," I said.
我希望他能给我一两个关于如何解决问题的线索。例如，他可能会告诉我首先拿两个温度较低的块，冷却一个并加热另一个，然后对第一个最热的块和我刚刚加热的块做同样的事情。或者可能还有其他解决问题的技巧。我只是想要一个提示。
I hoped he would just give me a clue or two as to how to set up the problem. For example, he might tell me first to take the two lower-temperature blocks and cool one and heat the other, then do the same thing with the one that was first hottest and the one that I just heated up. Or there might be some other trick to the problem. I just wanted a hint.
“这不是一个简单的问题，”吉夫托普洛斯说。“事实上，我的同事，牛津大学的克拉克教授，刚刚向《热力学杂志》提交了一篇论文，其中包含该问题的解决方案。我同意他的解决方案；我很想看看班上是否有人出现与他所到达的一样。”
"It is not an easy problem," Gyftopoulos said. "In fact, my colleague, Professor Clarke at Oxford, has just submitted a paper with a solution to that problem in it to the Journal of Thermodynamics. I agree with his solution; I'm interested to see whether anyone in the class comes up with what he arrived at."
太好了，我想。克拉克教授同一周还有其他四个问题要交吗？
Great, I thought. Did Professor Clarke have four other problems due the same week?
吉夫托普洛斯继续说道：“佩珀，你为什么不去看黑板。我想问你几个问题。它们可能会引导你走向正确的方向。”
Gyftopoulos continued, "Why don't you go to the blackboard, Pepper. I'd like to ask you a few questions. They may lead you in the right direction."
呃哦。我以为苏格拉底方法是法学院和商学院的专利。我想要的只是一个提示，而不是即兴的口试。
Uh-oh. I thought the Socratic method was reserved for law school and business school. All I wanted was a hint, not an impromptu oral exam.
当我从布满灰尘的铝托盘中拿起一支粉笔时，他问道：“请为我定义可用能量。”
As I picked up a piece of chalk from the dusty aluminum tray, he asked, "Please define for me available energy."
说什么？那是三周前的事了。测试还有三周时间。他不能指望我从第二讲的笔记中复习到这一点。帮助。带我离开这里。
Say what? That's from three weeks ago. The test isn't for three weeks. He can't expect me to have reviewed that from my notes to the second lecture. Help. Get me out of here.
我回答说：“可用能量是……可用于做有用功的能量。” 我只记得有几页课堂笔记专门讨论了这个概念。我读过一次，并打算让马特或贝雷塔或吉夫托普洛斯在期中考试前向我解释它们。
I answered, "The available energy is the energy that is .. . available to do useful work." All I remembered was that several pages of the class notes were devoted to the concept. I'd read them once and had intended to get Matt or Beretta or Gyftopoulos to explain them to me before the midterm.
吉夫托普洛斯不会松懈。“我需要一个比这更严格的定义，”他说。
Gyftopoulos would not let up. "I need a more rigorous definition than that," he said.
我在黑板上画了一个颠倒的马蹄铁，代表大写的希腊字母欧米茄。最后一封信。我试图记住吉夫托普洛斯在第三讲开始时在黑板上写下的不等式方程。
I drew an upside-down horseshoe on the board, for the capital Greek letter omega. The last letter. I tried to remember the equation with the inequality that Gyftopoulos had written on the board at the beginning of the third lecture.
它开始回来了。Omega 减去 omega-sub-zero 大于或等于 T-sub-zero 乘以 S 减去 S-sub-zero。
It began to come back. Omega minus omega-sub-zero is greater than or equal to T-sub-zero multiplied by S minus S-subzero.
“S指的是什么？” 他试探着。
"What does S refer to?" he probed.
一个简单的。“熵。”
An easy one. "Entropy."
“请定义熵。”
"Please define entropy."
很难。“熵很好，它与随机性以及系统的工作能力以及系统的热度有关。”
A hard one. "Entropy is well, it's, uh, well, it has to do with randomness and, uh, the system's ability to do work and sort of how hot it is."
他不再笑了。“你显然还没有为这次会议做好准备，”他严厉地说。“我是一个非常忙碌的人，如果你没有做好准备，也没有很好地阐述你的问题，请不要再来这里。”
He wasn't smiling anymore. "You're obviously not prepared for this session," he said sternly. "I'm a very busy man, and if you are not prepared and you do not have your questions wellformulated, please do not come here again."
别哭，我想。大男孩不哭。如果我哭了，他永远不会用同样的眼神看我。不过我好累啊 外面天色越来越暗了。我负债累累。我不知道该怎么办斯蒂芬妮。
Don't cry, I thought. Big boys don't cry. He'll never look at me the same if I cry. I'm so tired, though. It's getting darker outside. I'm in debt. I don't know what to do about Stephanie.
泪水和抽泣从我的身体涌到我的头上，从我的眼睛、嘴巴和鼻子流出来。
The tears and sobs welled up from my body to my head and out my eyes, mouth, and nose.
“如果……如果……如果。” 我说不出来。
"If . . . if ... if." I couldn't say it.
如果我知道如何提出这个问题，我就可以在没有你的情况下回答它。
If I knew how to formulate the question, I could answer it without you.
“现在，现在，没有必要了，”他更有同情心地说。“去洗个澡，坐下几分钟，然后我们再讨论这个问题。”
"Now, now, there's no need for that," he said a little more compassionately. "Go and wash yourself and sit down for a few minutes. Then we can go over the problem."
我走过等候区的贝雷塔和秘书。我试图避免目光接触。他们似乎并没有因为我的红脸而感到不安。也许他们以前见过这样的场景。
I walked past Beretta and the secretary in the waiting area. I tried to avoid eye contact. They didn't seem disturbed by my red face. Maybe they'd seen scenes like this before.
我洗掉眼睛里的盐分，坐在其中一个隔间里，仍然穿着蓝色牛仔裤，门关着。我深吸了几口气。我回去从他的办公室拿我的笔记本。
I washed the salt from my eyes and sat in one of the stalls with my blue jeans still on and the door closed. I took some deep breaths. I went back to pick up my notebook from his office.
吉安·保罗坐在另一张柚木椅子上，正在与吉夫托普洛斯交谈。Gian Paolo 递给我一张问题开始的草图，两人解释了如何开始。
Gian Paolo was sitting in the other teak chair, talking to Gyftopoulos. Gian Paolo handed me a sketch of the beginning of the problem, and the two of them explained how to start.
他们今天枪杀了萨达特。当子弹撕裂他的身体时，他一如既往地立正站着，挺起胸膛，充满挑衅。
They shot Sadat today. As the bullets ripped apart his body he stood, as always, at attention, chest out, defiant.
10 月 8 日星期四晚上 9:00
Thursday, October 8. 9:00 P.m.
距离罗森诺课堂上的第一次测验还有不到十六个小时。这将是判断我是否属于麻省理工学院的第一个指标。学习的方法就是看笔记，看课本，但那只是肥料。准备考试的方法就是做题，即使没有评分的作业。
T minus sixteen hours to the first quiz in Rohsenow's class. It will be the first indicator of whether or not I belong at MIT. The way to study is to read through the notes, read through the textbook, but that is just fertilizer. The way to prepare for the test is to do problems, even though there is no graded homework.
如果在本章后面能有一个解决问题的手册就好了。然后我可以尝试这个问题，陷入困境，在其他人已经解决的解决方案中寻找提示，再次陷入困境，寻找另一个提示，等等。我就是这样完成本科课程的。
It would be nice if there were a solution manual to the problems, in the back of the chapter. Then I could try the problem, get stuck, look for a hint in the solution that someone else had worked out, get stuck again, look for another hint, and so on. That's how I'd gotten through my undergrad classes.
观察足够多的类似问题，你就会开始发现规律。了解了这些模式，你就有了可以写在纸上的东西。那么至少你可以获得部分学分，当评分者给你 3 分（满分 10 分）来列出相关公式，3 分用于尝试将问题的具体参数插入公式中，如果你得到 4 分... 答案。
Look at enough similar problems and you begin to see patterns. Know the patterns and you have something to put on the paper. Then at least you can get partial credit points, when the grader gives you 3 out of 10 for putting down a relevant formula, 3 for making an attempt at plugging the specific parameters of the problem into the formula, and 4 more points if you get ... the answer.
在麻省理工学院，模式较少。每个问题似乎都有 100 个步骤，而每个步骤似乎都有一个微妙之处，这使得杰米解决这些问题的能力显得任意、神奇，或者是上天的恩赐。是时候尝试另一种了。
Here at MIT there were fewer patterns. Every problem seemed to have 100 steps, and each step seemed to have a subtlety to it that made Jamie's ability to solve them seem arbitrary, magic, or a gift from above. Time to try another one.
“附加问题 7。求出距离无限宽、无限长且有均匀水流流过的平板前缘 2 英尺处的温度。到达该板的热通量是均匀的，每块热通量为 4,000 Btu平方英尺。
"Extra Problem 7. Find the temperature 2 feet from the leading edge of a flat plate that is infinitely wide, infinitely long, and has a uniform flow of water going over it. The heat flux to the plate is uniform, at 4,000 Btu per square foot.
正确的。我想知道为什么有人会关心无限长和无限宽的平板。我见过的最大的盘子是圆形的，位于 20 英寸的披萨下面。这个问题看起来几乎和无限长的均匀电荷圆柱体一样晦涩难懂，正是它让我成为了一个非物理学家。
Right. I wondered why anyone would care about a flat plate that was infinitely long and infinitely wide. The biggest plate I'd ever seen was round and underneath a 20-inch pizza. This problem seemed almost as obscure as the infinitely long cylinder of uniform charge that made me into a nonphysicist.
我开始了我的尝试。步骤1.画图。
I started my attempt. Step 1. Draw picture.
无论如何，什么会给你均匀的热通量？如果热通量均匀，为什么温度不均匀？啊啊啊，正如比尔猫会说的那样。
What would give you uniform heat flux anyway? If the heat flux is uniform, why isn't the temperature uniform? Ack-ack, as Bill the Cat would say.
步骤2.在书中寻找类似的示例问题。没有一个可以接近。
Step 2. Look for similar sample problem in book. There isn't one that's even close.
步骤 3. 浏览同事书架上的四本不同的传热书籍。罗森诺昨天表示，我们可以测试任何我们想要的书。“唯一不能带的东西，”他眨了眨眼睛说，“就是顾问。” 它们里面也什么也没有。
Step 3. Look through four different heat transfer books on office mate's shelf. Rohsenow said yesterday that we could bring to the test any book we wanted to. "The only thing you can't bring," he said with a wink, "is a consultant." There's nothing in them, either.
步骤 4. 查看课堂笔记，然后查看同事前一年讲座的课堂笔记。又是一个死胡同。
Step 4. Look through class notes, then office mate's class notes from previous year's lecture. Another dead end.
第 5 步：思考问题中发生了什么。请参阅图片。重新绘制图片。
Step 5. Think about what's going on in the problem. Refer to the picture. Redraw the picture.
也许两个无穷大的目的是简化问题，这样您就不必担心边缘发生的情况。这将使问题能够得到解决，就好像事物仅在两个方向上（即在一个平面上）变化一样。
Maybe the point of the two infinities is to simplify the problem so you don't have to worry about what happens at edges. This will enable the problem to be solved as if things vary in two directions only, i.e., in a plane.
我仍然想知道什么会产生均匀的热通量以及为什么它很重要。然后我在《马特环球报》的头版上看到了有关西布鲁克核电站的文章。板下方的原子分裂可能看起来是均匀的热流。
I still wondered what would produce a uniform heat flux and why it mattered. Then I saw the article about the Seabrook nuclear plant on the front page of Matt's Globe. Atoms splitting underneath the plate might appear to be a uniform heat flow.
水或其他冷却剂必须流过板的顶部。否则，无论用什么材料制成的盘子都会熔化。中国综合症第二课五十五。
Water or some other coolant would have to flow over the top of the plate. Otherwise the plate, no matter what it was made of, would melt. The China syndrome in class Two fifty-five.
如果水从左边流来，而盘子真的很热，比水还热，那么盘子左端的水将是最冷的，离盘子越远，水就越热。 。水越热，对盘子的冷却作用就越小。因此，当你向下游移动时，盘子会变得更热。
If the water is coming from the left, and the plate is really really hot, hotter than the water, then the water will be coolest at the left end of the plate, and more of it will get hotter farther and farther away from the plate. The hotter the water is, the less it can cool the plate. Ergo, the plate gets hotter as you go downstream.
他们在核工厂必须采取的技巧是确保板材不会太长，以免其温度超过其材料的熔点。谁会想吃沙滩球那么大的西红柿呢？
The trick they have to get right at the nuke plant is to make sure the plate isn't so long that its temperature goes above the melting point of what it's made of. Who would want to eat a tomato as big as a beach ball?
可是等等。罗森现在就是他们。如果我能弄清楚如何解决这个问题，我就是他们。
But wait. Rohsenow is they. If I can figure out how to do this problem, I am they.
当我开始设置配方时，看门人艾迪敲了门，进来清空废纸篓。艾迪与尼凯斯先生有着惊人的相似之处，尼凯斯先生是我在比利时传热实验室完成实验部分内容的技术人员。这看起来有点像《绿野仙踪》中稻草人、胆小的狮子和铁皮人与埃姆阿姨的农场工人的相似之处。艾迪出生于西西里岛。
As I started setting up the formula, Eddy the janitor knocked on the door and came in to empty the wastebasket. Eddy had an uncanny resemblance to Monsieur Nicaise, the technician who built parts of my experiment in the heat transfer lab in Belgium. It seemed a little like the resemblance that the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man had to Aunty Em's farmhands in The Wizard of Oz. Eddy was born in Sicily.
“怎么样，Peppy？你来得有点晚了，不是吗？” 我的名字听起来像意大利语的 Peppy。
"How's it going, Peppy? You're here kind of late, aren't you?" My name sounds like Peppy in Italian.
“现在才十一点。夜色还早。”我说。“明天我将进行第一次测试，我想尽可能做好准备。”
"It's only eleven. The night is young," I said. "I've got my first test tomorrow and I want to be as prepared as possible."
他回答说：“不要太专注于你的工作。偶尔找点乐子。有些研究生只工作了五年——然后也许到最后他们的实验不起作用，他们就拿不到硕士学位了。”或者博士。他们一定觉得自己浪费了这些年，没有什么可以活下去的了。我的一些清洁工同事发现这些学生挂在他们应该清理的办公室的管道上。这毁了他们的轮班……别让它发生在你身上。”
He answered, "Don't get too wrapped up in your work. Have some fun sometimes. Some of these graduate students just work for five years-then maybe at the end their experiment doesn't work and they don't get their master's or Ph.D. They must feel like they wasted all those years and there's nothing left to live for. Some of my janitor colleagues have found these students hanging from the pipe in the offices they're supposed to clean up. It ruins their shift. Don't let it happen to you."
这是真的。我从认识的人那里听说过麻省理工学院的自杀问题，但我把这些知识抛到一边并忘记了。我想知道我认识谁，或者还不认识谁，谁可能无法生存。或者无论是我。
It's true. I'd heard about MIT's suicide problem from people who knew people who went here, but I'd shoved the knowledge aside and forgotten about it. I wondered who I knew, or didn't yet know, who might not survive. Or whether it was me.
“我会尽力正确看待事情，”我向他保证。“你知道周围有没有沙发的办公室吗？我不想浪费今晚骑自行车回家和明天早上回来的时间。”
"I'll try to keep things in perspective," I assured him. "Do you know of any offices around that have couches in them? I don't want to waste the time it'll take to ride my bike home tonight and back in tomorrow morning."
“当然可以。走廊那头就有一家。到 5 号楼找我就行了。”
"Sure. There's one just down the hall. Just find me in Building 5."
“好吧。现在我想换换环境。我要去学生中心图书馆呆几个小时，”我说。
"OK. For now I want a change of scenery. I'm going to the student center library for a couple of hours," I said.
学生中心图书馆全天二十四小时开放。它在学生中心五楼。桌子是棕色饰面的；椅子是Naugahyde的。这是电动工具在半夜去的地方。这也是一些麻省理工学院学生居住的地方。一些小壁龛非常黑暗，在椅子下面或某个地方的小隔间里，他们放着牙刷和剃须刀。至少那些刷牙和刮胡子的人会这样做。在这里睡觉的技巧是将两张躺椅相对放置，靠在其中一张的手臂上，双腿放在另一张的座位上。
The student center library is open twenty-four hours a day. It's on the fifth floor of the student center. The tables are brown veneer; the chairs are Naugahyde. This is where the power tools go in the middle of the night. It is also where some MIT students live. Some little alcoves are pretty dark, and underneath the chairs or in a cubbyhole somewhere they keep their toothbrushes and razors. At least the ones who brush their teeth and shave do. The trick to sleeping here is to put two of the lounge chairs across from each other and lean on the arm of one with your legs on the seat of the other.
学生中心图书馆在五楼，但看不到操场。有窗户，但面向混凝土人行道和外墙。这是为了防止你在连续第八个通宵后将其中一把诺加海德椅子从窗户扔出去并跟随它。
The student center library is on the fifth floor, but there isn't a view of the playing fields. There are windows, but they look onto a concrete sidewalk and exterior wall. This is to prevent you from lobbing one of the Naugahyde chairs through the window and following it after your eighth consecutive all-nighter.
我发现桌子旁有一张空椅子，对面是一位东方学生，他正在读一本名为《半导体物理》的教科书。他以半随机的节奏用脚敲击椅腿，每秒一两次。与此同时，他像指挥棒一样转动笔，从小指到拇指，每敲击十英尺就转回来。
I found an empty chair at a table across from an Oriental student who was reading a textbook entitled Semiconductor Physics. He tapped his foot on the chair leg in a semirandom rhythm, once or twice a second. At the same time he twirled his pen like a baton from his little finger to his thumb and back again every ten foot taps.
这让我很难集中注意力。“对不起，你介意停下来吗？” 我问他（过去式。
It made it difficult to concentrate. "Excuse me, would you mind stopping that?" I asked him.
“阻止什么？”
"Stopping what?"
“没关系。” 我到另一张桌子学习到1点30分。当我意识到我已经看了一张罗森诺的讲义十五分钟时，我知道是时候停下来了。看着它，就好像它是一张对我来说毫无意义的中文文字，只是纸上的标记。我睁着眼睛睡着了。
"Never mind." I went to another table and studied until 1:30. I knew it was time to stop when I realized I had been looking at one sheet of Rohsenow's lecture notes for fifteen minutes. Looking at it as if it were a sheet of Chinese writing that meant nothing to me, just marks on a page. I was asleep with my eyes open.
凌晨 2:00
2:00 A. M.
我问另一位看门人是否见过艾迪。
I asked another janitor whether he'd seen Eddy.
“他正在吃午饭。” 我猜如果您从 10:00 到 6:30 轮班，那么凌晨 2:00 就是午餐时间。我走向办公室，发现艾迪从大厅壁橱里拿出拖把和擦洗桶。他打开了办公室的门，里面摆着早期的美国沙发。我从门内侧的钩子上取下两件实验室夹克，用它们作为午睡的毯子。
"He's at lunch." I guess if you work the 10:00 to 6:30 shift, 2:00 A.M. would be lunchtime. I went toward my office and found Eddy pulling a mop and scrub bucket out of the hall closet. He opened the door to the office with the early American couch. I took two lab jackets off the hook on the inside of the door and used them as blankets for my nap.
6点15分，艾迪再次敲门。“在这里，Peppy，我给你做了一杯卡布奇诺。就像我妈妈做的那样。一点浓缩咖啡，大量的糖和牛奶。现在你重新开始学习，并在考试中取得好成绩。”
At 6:15 Eddy knocked on the door again. "Here, Peppy, I made you a cappucino. Just like my mama makes. A little espresso and a lot of sugar and milk. Now you get going again in your studying and do well on that test."
下午 2:00，测试在教室开始，我们 20 个人用椅子扶手上的小办公桌写蓝皮书。Rohsenow 正在参加 Dynatech 董事会议，Jamie 离开房间进行大部分测试。专业人士不作弊。问题 1 出奇地简单，只花了二十分钟。问题 2 有点像我昨晚做的，所以至少我有一些东西可以写在纸上。还没有被鱼雷击中，我的头还在水面上。
At 2:00 P.M. the test began in the classroom with the twenty of us using our little deskettes from the chair arms to write in our bluebooks. Rohsenow was at a Dynatech directors' meeting and Jamie left the room for most of the test. Professionals do not cheat. Problem 1 was surprisingly easy and took twenty minutes. Problem 2 was a little like the one I'd done last night, so at least I had something to put on the paper. Not yet torpedoed, my head was still above water.
10 月 9 日晚上 8:00
8:00 P.m. October 9
又是一个周五晚上，我却没有找到任何人。我没有钱，因为我没有得到报酬。
Another Friday night and I don't got nobody. Ain't got no money 'cause I don't get paid.
外面越来越冷了。带内置烟灰缸的装饰台灯温暖了我的脸和手。唯一的一盏灯，在桌子深绿色记事本上的写字板上发出一滩柔和的光。上面的荧光灯嗡嗡作响。
It was getting colder outside. The deco desk lamp with builtin ashtray warmed my face and my hands. The only lamp, it made a pool of soft light on the writing tablet on the desk's dark green blotter. The fluorescent light above buzzed too much.
“1981 年 10 月 9 日，星期五
"Friday, October 9, 1981
亲爱的斯蒂芬妮，
Dear Stephanie,
。。。如您所知，我的父亲现已七十多岁了，身体出现了一些问题。也许我问你的部分原因是为了取悦他，在他还和我们在一起的时候结婚。我不想伤害你。我希望有一天你能在心里原谅我......
. . . As you know, my father, now over seventy, has had some health problems. Maybe part of why I asked you was to please him, to be married while he was still with us. I didn't want to hurt you. I hope you will someday find it in your heart to forgive me.... ..
“咚”的一声，7号楼大厅的信箱里回响着。飞行，飞往布鲁塞尔。
Thunk, echoed the mailbox in the Building 7 lobby. Par avion, to Brussels.
章节
C H A P T E R
4
4
期中考试
Midterm
哥伦布日天气晴朗，风和日丽，阳光明媚，查尔斯号上停满了帆船。吉姆·斯图尔特 (Jim Stuart) 和我在纪念大道 (Memorial Drive) 中间观看了她们的比赛，同时等待 10,000 名女性在邦妮·贝尔 (Bonnie Belle) 比赛中通过。
Columbus Day was clear, windy, and warm with Indian summer sun, and the Charles was full of sailboats. Jim Stuart and I watched them from the middle of Memorial Drive while we waited for the 10,000 women to pass in the Bonnie Belle race.
他们以各种速度过去。他们每一个人都是脱离美国的思想家。
They passed at all speeds. They were American-free thinkers, every one of them.
10 月 15 日，星期四
Thursday, October 15
在吉夫托普洛斯的课堂上，我坐在第三排玛丽·帕特森旁边。她穿着褪色牛仔裤和前面印有骷髅头的黑色T恤。头骨上有美国国旗的星条旗，下面用大字写着“运动死亡”。牙齿的形状隐约像字母，上面写着“只有生命才能杀死你”。
I sat next to Mary Patterson in the third row in Gyftopoulos's class. She wore faded jeans and a black T-shirt with a skull on the front. The skull had the stars and stripes of the American flag on it and "Sport Death" written in big letters beneath. The teeth were shaped faintly like letters, and they spelled "Only life can kill you."
“这件 T 恤很有趣，”我说。“你从哪里得到的？”
"That's an interesting T-shirt," I said. "Where'd you get it?"
“我本科生在高级宿舍。这是宿舍标志。”
"I was in Senior House as an undergrad. This is the dorm logo."
“有一场比赛并且获胜了吗？”
"Was there a contest and that won?"
“我不知道完整的历史，”她说。“我认为有人从亨特·汤普森的某本书的封面上偷走了头骨。至于‘运动死亡’，我不知道是否有人知道它是从哪里开始的。”
"I don't know the full history," she said. "I think somebody swiped the skull off the cover of some book by Hunter Thompson. As for the 'Sport Death,' I don't know if anyone knows where that started."
“Senior House 听起来是个有趣的地方。你去了麻省理工学院吗？我问她。
"Senior House sounds like a fun place. Did you go to MIT?I asked her.
“是的，我78年毕业。过去三年我一直在Dynatech工作。但似乎如果我想成为研发领域的大人物，我至少需要硕士学位，最好是博士学位。否则我可能会因为喝咖啡而陷入困境。”
"Yeah, I graduated in '78. I've worked at Dynatech for the past three years. But it seemed that if I wanted to be a big wheel in research and development I needed at least a master's and preferably a Ph.D. Otherwise I could get stuck running coffee."
我问她如何喜欢 Dynatech。
I asked her how she liked Dynatech.
她回答说：“这真的很好。他们为所有工程师提供私人办公室——好吧，没有一个有窗户，但这比我的一些在航空航天领域找到工作的朋友在‘猪圈’里工作要好。而且工作是十分有趣。”
She answered, "It's really good. They give all the engineers private offices-well, okay, none of them has windows but it's better than the 'pigpens' that some of my friends who got jobs in aerospace work in. And the work is really interesting."
“猪圈是什么？”
"What's a pigpen?"
“那些在一排排办公桌的大型开放式办公室里工作的工程师就是这么称呼他们的。那里没有隐私，而且真的很难集中注意力。那里的诀窍是足够闪亮，这样你就可以找到一间带门的室外办公室。 ，“ 她说。
"That's what the engineers who work in those big open offices with rows and rows of desks call them. There's no privacy, and it's really hard to concentrate. The trick there is to shine enough so you get one of the outside offices with a door," she said.
我还没有从事过真正的工作，所以这是一个令人不安的消息。
I hadn't yet worked in a real job, so this was disturbing news.
我对她说：“我想知道现在转学到法学院是否太晚了。” 她笑了。“顺便说一句，”我补充道，“我喜欢你的戒指。你从哪里买的？”
I said to her, "I wonder whether it's too late to transfer to law school." She laughed. "By the way," I added, "I like your ring. Where'd you get it?"
“这是我的铜鼠，”她说。这是一枚图章戒指，图章是麻省理工学院的吉祥物海狸。“这提醒了我，现在我回到学校了，我必须把戒指转过来，这样当我握拳时，图章就靠在我的手掌上。”
"This is my brass rat," she said. It was a signet ring, with a beaver, the MIT mascot, as the signet. "That reminds me, now that I'm back in school here, I have to turn the ring around so the signet's against my palm when I make a fist."
“为什么？” 我问。
"Why's that?" I asked.
“当你在这里的时候，海狸把你当作厕所。当你拿到学位后，你就和海狸合二为一了，所以你把圆环转过来，你和海狸就把世界其他地方当作厕所， “ 她说。
"When you're here, the beaver uses you as a toilet. After you get your degree, you're one with the beaver, so you turn the ring around and you and the beaver use the rest of the world as a toilet," she said.
我至少可以看出这个比喻的第一部分的有效性。玛丽和 TPP 的人一样有信心，但她更聪明。在这里四年的本科工作可能会对一个人造成这种影响。她的自信让我有些害怕，但她的眼神里也有温柔。我希望我们能成为朋友。
I could see the validity of at least the first part of the metaphor. Mary had the same confidence that the TPP people had, but she was smarter. Four years of undergrad work here probably does that to a person. Her confidence scared me a little, but there was also a gentleness in her eyes. I hoped we would become friends.
吉夫托普洛斯开始了当天的讲座。到目前为止，演示完全是外国的。他和贝雷塔提出了他们自己的热力学语言，包括“可用能量”、“稳定平衡状态”和“第一类和第二类永动机”等新术语。今天关于麦克斯韦关系的讲座与我在霍普金斯大学听到的类似。
Gyftopoulos started the lecture of the day. Up until now the presentation was completely foreign. He and Beretta had presented their own language of thermodynamics, including new terms like "available energy," "stable equilibrium state," and "perpetual motion machines of the first and second kind." Today the lectureon Maxwell's relations-was similar to one I'd heard at Hopkins.
麦克斯韦关系式是由十九世纪英国物理学家詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦发明或发现的，他还发明或发现了电场和磁场之间关系的麦克斯韦方程。那些十九世纪的家伙做了一切。在瓦特的发动机、卡诺的理论、克劳修斯的熵之后，麦克斯韦提出了一些关系式，使您能够获取温度、压力和体积等可测量的量，并计算出能量和熵等更抽象量的大小。
Maxwell's relations were invented or discovered by James Clerk Maxwell, the nineteenth-century British physicist who also invented or discovered Maxwell's equation for the relationship between electric and magnetic fields. Those nineteenth-century guys did everything. After Watt's engine, after Carnot's theory, after Clausius's entropy, Maxwell came along with relations that enable you to take measurable quantities like temperature, pressure, and volume and figure out the magnitude of the more abstract quantities, like energy and entropy.
今天的讲座介绍了麦克斯韦关系。它们都是偏导数。例如，由于熵，无论是什么，都是温度和压力的函数，因此熵的非常小的变化可以被认为是温度对熵的影响的微小变化和压力对熵的影响的微小变化的总和。够简单的。但是，当你对能量进行相同的分析时，以及他们称之为焓的另一种东西，当他们在一个半小时内向你射击所有这些时，它很快就变成了汤。你的笔记中有太多的方程式，几乎不可能知道重要的方程式是什么、中间步骤是什么以及它们如何组合在一起。一切都发生得如此之快，仅仅把这些东西写下来就已经够困难的了，更不用说理解任何东西并遵循推理了。
And so today's lecture presented Maxwell's relations. They were all partial derivatives. Since, for example, entropy, whatever that is, is a function of temperature and pressure, a very small change in entropy can be thought of as the sum of a small change in temperature's effect on entropy and a small change in pressure's effect on entropy. Simple enough. But when you then look at the same analysis for energy, and another thing they call enthalpy, and when they shoot all this at you in an hour and a half, it quickly becomes soup. There are so many equations in your notes that it's nearly impossible to know what the important ones are, what the intermediate steps are, and how they all fit together. It all goes so fast and it's hard enough just to write the stuff down, much less comprehend anything and follow the reasoning.
玛丽的笔记非常整洁，就像马特的一样，整洁且有用。她甚至有时间在边缘画一些带叶子的小植物。
Mary's notes were perfectly neat, like Matt's, uncluttered and useful. She even had time to draw little leafed plants in the margins.
讲座结束时，吉夫托普洛斯做了最后的笔记。“我刚才介绍的正是你在物理化学课或热力学物理课上会看到的内容。这是科学知识。但你会发现，在现实世界中，科学知识是最简单的。部分。至少它在逻辑上是一致和不变的。作为工程师，你要做的就是对你正在设计的系统做出假设。做出假设来使你能够生产出既能工作又符合科学原理的东西可能是非常困难的”。
At the end of the lecture, Gyftopoulos made a final note. "What I've just presented is exactly what you will see in a physical chemistry class, or a physics class in thermodynamics. This is scientific knowledge. What you will find, though, in the real world is that the scientific knowledge is the easy part. At least it is logically consistent and invariant. What you will have to do as engineers is make assumptions about the systems you are designing. Making assumptions that enable you to produce something that works while being consistent with the scientific principles can be very difficult."
我想知道他是什么意思。
I wondered what he meant.
“顺便说一句，”他继续说道，“第一次测验将于 10 月 29 日举行，即两周后。”
"By the way," he continued, "the first quiz will be October 29, two weeks from today."
我对玛丽说：“那个日期让我想起了，但我无法确定它，就像它是某个历史事件的日期一样。”
I said to Mary, "That date rings a bell with me, but I can't place it, like it's the date of some historic event."
“试试 1929 年的黑色星期四，股市崩盘。”
"Try Black Thursday 1929, the stock market crash."
“你的记忆力真好。午饭你有做什么吗？” 我问。
"You've got a great memory. Are you doing anything for lunch?" I asked.
“我正在检查我的车。”她用不拒绝的语气回答道。“也许改天吧。”
"I'm getting my car inspected," she replied in a nonrejecting tone. "Maybe some other time."
周五下午我去参加了流体教程。这是由来自黎巴嫩的 Kamel Gemayel 在 1 号楼二楼进行的。在教程中，您会提出有关如何做题的问题。这也是你让教授看起来很愚蠢的机会，这是公平的，因为他们有很多机会让你看起来很愚蠢。不过，杰马耶勒是个好人，所以没人想让他看起来很愚蠢。
Friday afternoon I went to the fluids tutorial. This was conducted on the second floor of Building 1, by Kamel Gemayel, from Lebanon. At a tutorial, you ask questions about how to do problems. It's also your chance to make the professor look stupid, which is only fair since they have so many chances to make you look stupid. Gemayel was a nice guy, though, so nobody wanted to make him look stupid.
1 号楼毗邻纪念大道，从教室的窗户可以直接看到大道两侧树木的叶子高度。透过窗户，那是一个蓝天的下午，树叶金灿灿的，风吹在查尔斯河上，和周一一样，只是凉爽一些。秋天已经来临，几乎没有机会迎来更温暖的天气。海浪让我回想起划独木舟的日子。
Building 1 adjoins Memorial Drive and the classroom's window looked right onto leaf level of the trees along each side of the drive. It was a blue sky afternoon through the window and the leaves were brilliantly golden and the wind blew on the Charles as it had on Monday, only cooler. Fall was fully with us, with little chance for more warm weather. The waves made me think back to my canoe-tripping days.
Gemayel 提出了问题 C-32。油和水位于两个板块之间，水波沿着板块的长度向下移动。自然地，盘子是无限长的。该问题要求您将波速与油和水的密度以及波的高度联系起来。他从笔记中推导出了解决方案。这不是湖面上的波浪，但它是一个开始。
Gemayel presented problem C-32. Oil and water were between two plates, and a wave of the water moved down the length of the plates. Naturally the plates were infinitely long. The problem asked you to relate the wave speed to the density of the oil and the water and the height of the wave. He went through the derivation of the solution from his notes. It wasn't a wave on a lake, but it was a start.
我旁边的利比亚核工程学生让杰马耶勒做C-33题；它要求我们计算给定尺寸的船舶在给定尺寸的波浪中的振荡频率。这是今年新增的一个新问题，因此杰马耶勒没有书面解决方案。事实上，他以前从未考虑过这个问题。
The Libyan nuclear engineering student next to me asked Gemayel to do problem C-33; it asked us to calculate the frequency of oscillation of a ship of a given size in waves of given sizes. This was a new problem, added this year, so Gemayel didn't have a written solution. In fact, he'd never looked at the problem before.
他支支吾吾，哽咽了五分钟，转了几圈，最后说道：“这里有人做过这道题吗？” 坐在我前面的韩国人站起来写下了答案。
He hemmed and he hawwed for five minutes, going around in some circles, and then he finally said, "Did anyone here do this problem?" The Korean sitting in front of me got up and wrote the solution.
看到教授不是无所不知是令人欣慰的，但同样令人不安的是，看到那个位于我的钟形曲线上的韩国人比教授更聪明。
It was comforting to see that a professor wasn't omniscient, but it was equally discomforting to see that the Korean, who would be on my bell curve, was smarter than the professor.
罗森诺让我们等到课后才交回传热测试。他做的第一件事是画出钟形曲线，用一条从 0 到 20 的数轴。他在说话之前画了 x：一个 x 在 7 处，两个 x 在 9 处，四个 x 在 10 处，无一个在 11 处，两个在 12 处，四个 x 13岁的时候有6个，14岁的时候有6个，还有8个在15岁到20岁之间。
Rohsenow made us wait until after the class to hand back the heat transfer tests. The first thing he did was draw the bell curve, with a number line from 0 to 20. He drew the x's before he spoke: One x at 7, two at 9, four at 10, none at 11, two at 12, four at 13, six at 14, and another eight between 15 and 20.
“数据结果几乎符合杰米和我的预期，”罗森诺说。“现在，如果你在这里，或者在右边，那很好，”他指着 14 号说道。“如果你在左边，那么也许你应该再做一些题，或者考虑放弃。”
"The data came out pretty much the way Jamie and I expected," Rohsenow said. "Now if you're here, or to the right, that's good," he said, pointing to the 14. "If you're to the left of here, well maybe you should do some more problems or think about dropping."
好不容易借来的 3,400 美元用于学费，放弃课程是不可能的。
With 3,400 hard-borrowed dollars invested in tuition, dropping a course is not an option.
蓝色的书都放在前面的桌子上。讲座结束后，我们推到桌子旁，依次在一堆东西中翻找自己的。
The blue books were all sitting on the front table. After the lecture we pushed to the table, rummaging through the pile in turn to find our own.
我希望成绩不会出现在封面上，但事实确实如此。我的成绩是 14 岁——我的成绩是班级平均分。我记得小学时成绩的口头版本：“A，优秀，B，良好，C，一般，D，较差。” 当我很聪明的时候，平均水平总是被认为是一件坏事。但看到这里我才松了一口气。平均值 B.
I hoped the grades weren't put on the front cover, but they were. Mine was 14-I made class average. I remembered in elementary school the verbal version of grades: "A, excellent, B, good, C, average, D, poor." Average had always seemed a bad thing back when I was smart. But here I just breathed a big sigh of relief. Average meant B.
我在走出教室的路上遇见了玛丽。她在办公室门口，向一名正在参加《两点二十》（本科版流体课程）的本科生说鼓励的话。玛丽拥有助教职位，这意味着她会对习题进行评分，并帮助学生解决他们可能遇到的任何问题。和任何优秀的助教一样，她的教学工作比教授还要多。她并没有因为学生不理解而痛斥他们。而且她的办公室里几乎总是有人，所以她一定知道她的事情。
I bumped into Mary on the way out of the class. She was at the door of her office, offering words of encouragement to an undergrad who was taking two twenty, the undergrad version of Fluids. Mary had a teaching assistantship, which meant she graded problem sets and helped the students with any questions they might have. She, like any good TA, did more teaching than the professors. She did not bite her students' heads off for not understanding. And there was almost always someone at her office, so she must have known her stuff.
“你的车通过年检了吗？” 我问。
"Did your car pass the inspection?" I asked.
“当然有。对于一辆 77 年的雪佛兰来说，这还不错。我什至不需要投入任何钱。我正要去参加星期五晚上的啤酒狂欢。愿意一起去吗？”
"Sure did. Not bad for a '77 Chevette. I didn't even have to pour any money into it. I'm about to go down to the Friday night beer blast. Care to come along?"
“这听起来很有趣。” 我们下楼来到米基奇办公室和夏洛特·埃文斯办公室之间的休息室。这个区域挤满了人：白发教授围成一圈互相交谈，研究生围成一圈互相交谈，并与他们的导师、助理教授交谈。偶尔还有本科生。气氛很紧张，但很友好。
"That sounds like fun." We went downstairs to the lounge between Mikic's office and Charlotte Evans's office. The area was packed with people: circles of gray-haired professors talking to one another, circles of graduate students talking to one another and to their advisers, the assistant professors. And there was the occasional undergraduate. The atmosphere was wired, but in a friendly way.
“嘿，足球明星，”卡洛斯对我说。
"Hey, soccer star," Carlos said to me.
“莫伊？”
"Moi?"
“是啊，你。怎么样？”
"Yeah, you. How's it going?"
“好的，谢谢。你呢？”
"Fine, thanks. How about you?"
“很好。请问，你见过吉姆·斯图尔特吗？他参加了技术政策项目，”当吉姆向我们走来时，卡洛斯说道。
"Good. Say, you met Jim Stuart? He's in that Technology Policy program," Carlos said as Jim walked up to us.
“他当然有，”吉姆说。“每个人都认识佩珀。”
"Of course he has," Jim said. "Everyone knows Pepper."
米基奇教授走到玛丽身边，轻轻拍拍她的肩膀。“很高兴见到你回到这里，”他说。
Professor Mikic walked up to Mary and gave her a light pat on the shoulder. "It's good to see you back here," he said.
他看着我说：“我是玛丽的导师。她是我最引以为豪的学生之一。你最近怎么样？”
He looked at me and said, "I am Mary's mentor. She has been one of the students I am most proud of. And how are things going with you?"
“无论如何，到目前为止我还活着，”玛丽说。
"I'm surviving, so far anyway," Mary said.
我们又寒暄了一番，然后走向茶点桌。玛丽指着一个金发、留着小胡子的家伙。“那是彼得·胡贝尔。他和我一样，也是一年级学生。他二十三岁时获得了博士学位，现在是一名助理教授，全职就读于哈佛法学院。我听说他已经收到了最高法院奥康纳法官书记员的邀请。”
We exchanged further pleasantries and headed for the refreshment table. Mary pointed out a blond-haired guy with a mustache. "That's Peter Huber. He started here as a freshman the same time I did. He had his Ph.D. by the time he was twenty-three, and he's now an assistant professor and he goes to Harvard Law School full time. I hear he's already gotten an offer to clerk for Justice O'Connor in the Supreme Court."
“好吧，但是他的高尔夫球打得怎么样？”
"OK, but how's his golf game?"
“他不打高尔夫球。我不认为他打球，就这样。我不知道有谁比他更专注和更有指导性。”
"He doesn't play golf. I don't think he plays, period. I don't know anybody more focused and directed than he."
“那边那个正在和夏皮罗说话的白发留胡子的家伙是谁？” 我问。
"Who's the white-haired guy over there with the beard, talking to Shapiro?" I asked.
“那是‘汉克大公’佩恩特。他是居民控制天才。当他在港口处理厂进行紧急咨询时，他阻止了波士顿所有下水道的堵塞。管道破裂或阀门卡住了， “整个地方都失去了控制。他拿出一台自己开发的便携式计算机，在上面模拟了系统，告诉他们要打开哪些阀门，要关闭哪些阀门，以及要多快打开。”
"That's 'Maharajah Hank' Paynter. He's the resident controls genius. He kept all the sewers in Boston from backing up once when he did some emergency consulting at the treatment plant in the harbor. A pipe had broken or a valve had stuck and the whole place was out of control. He took out a portable computer he'd developed and simulated the system on it and told them what valves to open, what valves to close, and how fast to do it."
我们混在一起，直到人群开始稀疏，我问她是否有晚餐计划。
We mingled until the crowd started to thin out, and I asked her whether she had plans for dinner.
“不，”她说。“你想去查克河上游怎么样？”
"No," she said. "How'd you like to go up Chuck River?"
“打扰一下？”
"Excuse me?"
“你知道，沿着查尔斯河与哈维家族交往。我们可以去潘普洛纳咖啡馆，点一杯浓缩咖啡，谈论笛卡尔和萨特。”
"You know, up the Charles to rub elbows with the Harveys. We can go to Cafe Pamplona, order espresso, and talk about Descartes and Sartre."
“当然，”我说，然后我们走向她的车。我又问了她更多问题。“我可以解释过去 Dynatech 和 MIT 之间的七年。你在哪里长大？”
"Sure," I said, and we walked to her car. I asked her more questions. "I can account for the past seven years between Dynatech and MIT. Where'd you grow up?"
“我在城市北部的多布斯费里 (Dobbs Ferry) 读了高中和大部分小学。我的父母对苏联非常兴奋，所以我在那里读了一年级和二年级。”
"I went to high school and most of elementary school in Dobbs Ferry, north of the City. My parents were really excited about the Soviet Union, so I went to first and second grade there."
“太棒了，”我说。“你知道吗，这意味着当我吃我母亲藏在乒乓球桌下的好时巧克力棒时你正在俄罗斯，那张乒乓球桌将成为我家的避难所？那是什么样子的？” 我问。
"Amazing," I said. "Do you realize that means you were in Russia when I ate the Hershey bars that my mother had hidden under the ping-pong table that was going to be my family's fallout shelter? What was it like?" I asked.
“这没什么大不了的，真的；我的意思是我没有太多可以比较的东西。不过，这对我的俄语来说很棒；我会告诉你这么多。”
"It was no big deal, really; I mean I didn't have much to compare it with. It was great for my Russian, though; I'll tell you that much."
她那辆蓝色的 77 款雪维特乘客侧的车门无法从外面打开，所以她必须伸手让我进去。
The door on the passenger side of her blue '77 Chevette didn't open from the outside, so she had to reach over to let me in.
“他们不再像以前那样制作它们了，”她说。
"They don't make 'em like they used to," she said.
“是的，那是因为底特律有太多商学院的笨蛋在经营事情。那些人将成为我们的老板，这真的很烦人，而他们什么都不知道。”
"Yeah, that's 'cause there's too many B-school bozos running things in Detroit. It's really annoying that those people are going to be our bosses, and they don't know anything."
“是的，我知道你的意思，”她说。“但也许有一天我们会获得一些力量并能够改变事情。”
"Yeah, I know what you mean," she said. "But maybe we'll get some power some day and be able to change things."
我们驱车前往哈佛广场，沿着马萨诸塞大街穿过中央广场，经过杰克夜总会和奥森威尔斯剧院。我们更多地谈论了俄罗斯、华尔街、吉夫托普洛斯和他在萨德伯里的家。玛丽的声音里有时带着讽刺的语气，仿佛她的聪明才智是一种负担——一种负担，因为她不能被愚弄。
We drove to Harvard Square, up Mass. Ave through Central Square, past Jack's Nightclub and the Orson Wells theater. We talked more about Russia, Wall Street, Gyftopoulos, and his home in Sudbury. At times there was a tone of irony in Mary's voice, as if her intelligence were a burden-a burden because she couldn't be fooled.
“啊，一个停车位。”她高兴地说。“距离广场只有三个街区。”
"Ah, a parking space," she said gleefully. "And only three blocks from the square."
“你知道，我父亲在那里读了大学和法学院，”我指着街对面那栋长满常春藤的砖砌大建筑说道。“还记得《论文追逐》中的那个人，他是哈佛和哈佛法学院的第四代人吗？我本来就是第三代。”
"You know, my father went there for both college and law school," I said, pointing across the street at the big old brick building with ivy growing up the side. "Remember that guy in The Paper Chase, the one who was fourth-generation Harvard and Harvard Law? I would have been third generation."
“那你为什么不去那里呢？” 当我们向左走到弓街时，她问道。
"So why didn't you go there?" she asked as we walked left onto Bow Street.
“因为我的基因，我不想进入那里。我想去一个更注重成绩的地方。此外，你看看哈佛，它是工业的果实。麻省理工学院就是工业。你知道有趣的事情；我认为我父亲同意我的观点。”
"I didn't want to get in there because of my genes. I wanted to go somewhere that was more merit-oriented. Besides, you look at Harvard, it's the fruit of industry. MIT is industry. And you know the funny thing; I think my father agrees with me."
“好吧，你对麻省理工学院的看法是对的。这里就是咖啡馆。”
"Well, you're right about MIT. Here's the cafe."
这是楼下的一个小房间，比我的卧室大不了多少。我们坐在一张小圆桌旁。有几顶贝雷帽和粗花呢。咖啡馆的音响里正在播放维瓦尔第的《四季》。
It was a little downstairs room hardly bigger than my bedroom; we sat at one of the small round tables. There were several berets and tweed. Vivaldi's Four Seasons was playing on the cafe stereo.
“夏天，”玛丽说。
"Summer," Mary said.
“打扰一下？” 我说。
"Excuse me?" I said.
“这就是现在的季节。你可以看出来，因为这是最乐观的季节。”
"That's which season this is. You can tell because it's the most upbeat."
“哎呀，我认为我做得很好，认识到这是四个季节之一，”我回答道。
"Gee, and I thought I was doing well to recognize it was one of the Four Seasons," I answered.
我们点了晚餐，然后继续聊天。“所以给我更多关于吉夫托普洛斯的黑料吧，”我说。“他怎么做得这么好？”
We ordered our dinner and continued to talk. "So give me some more dirt on Gyftopoulos," I said. "How'd he do so well?"
“嗯，他和他的好友 Hatsopoulos 都是上世纪 50 年代这里的研究生。他们完成博士学位后，需要更新的挑战，因此他们开始申请政府资助进行合同研究。他们还为“天然气研究所。因此他们从中获得了合理的现金流，并开始将一些多余的资金投入到产品开发中。一件事导致了另一件事，现在 Thermo 跻身财富 1000 强。”
"Well, he and his buddy Hatsopoulos were both graduate students here back in the '50s. After they finished their Ph.D.s they needed newer challenges, so they started applying for government grants for contract research. They also did a lot of work for the Natural Gas Research Institute. So they developed a reasonable cash flow from that and started investing some of the excess in product development. One thing led to another, and now Thermo's in the Fortune 1000."
“你认为吉夫托普洛斯值多少钱？” 我问。
"How many millions do you think Gyftopoulos is worth?" I asked.
“我不知道。不过他可能已经注定了一生。”
"I don't know. He's probably set for life, though."
“哎呀。我想知道是什么让他坚持下去，”我说。
"Gee. I wonder what keeps him going," I said.
“这些人一旦成功，就不是为了钱，”玛丽说。“然后问题就变成了他们对世界有多大影响力。我认为吉夫托普洛斯真的很喜欢在麻省理工学院教学和工作。成为山中之王之一一定很有趣。”
"These guys aren't in it for the money, once they make it," Mary said. "Then it becomes a matter of how much of an influence they can have in the world. And I think Gyftopoulos genuinely loves teaching and being at MIT. It must be fun to be one of the kings of the mountain."
“是的。他是我们都想成为的那种人，”我说。“我不想转移话题，但你读本科时在这里的社交生活是什么样的？”
"Yeah. He's the kind of guy we all would like to be like," I said. "Not to change the subject, but what was your social life like here when you were an undergrad?"
“嗯，基本上，直到春天第一个温暖的一天，它才不存在。然后当我在图书馆学习时，人们会一个接一个地对我说，‘呃，嗨。呃，你是谁，呃…… ， 阅读？' 同样的事情也发生在我的很多朋友身上。”
"Well, basically it was nonexistent until the first warm day in the spring. Then when I would study in the library, guys would come up to me one after the other and say, 'Uhh, hi. Uhhh, what are you, uhhh, reading?' The same thing happened to a lot of my friends."
“教授们怎么样？他们怎么样？”
"How about the profs? How were they?"
“有些人还不错，有些人就是混蛋。你必须记住，这些人中有很多都是麻省理工学院的——你知道，学士、硕士、博士。他们在高中时在社交方面从未成熟。他们来到这里什么也没做但他们的后半生都在工作。当他们获得终身教职时，他们终于放松了。他们看到像我这样漂亮的年轻女子，他们不知道该怎么办——如果他们对你有任何权力，就像他们你的论文导师，某个时候肯定会出现一些愚蠢的性别歧视评论。三年前，我剪短了头发，试图让自己看起来不那么有吸引力，并避开这些评论，你知道我的一位教授怎么说吗？他说，“哦，玛丽，你看起来很朋克性感。但除此之外一切都很好。”
"Some were okay, others were jerks. You've got to remember that a lot of these guys are MIT cubed-you know, B.S., M.S., Ph.D. They never matured socially in high school. They came here and did nothing but work for the second half of their lives. They finally relax when they've got tenure. They see a nice young woman like me and they don't know what to do-if they have any power over you, like they're your thesis adviser, some stupid sexist comment is bound to come out sometime. Three years ago I cut my hair short to try to look less attractive and ward off the comments and you know what one of my professors said? He said, 'Oh, Mary, you look so punk sexy.' But other than that it was fine."
我们吃完素食，去看《烈火战车》，玛丽开车送我回家。
We finished the vegetarian meal, went to see Chariots of Fire, and Mary drove me home.
“我们去 7-11 吧，”我说。“我去拿一些茶包、牛奶、糖，还有女主人架上的一些东西。”
"Let's drop by the Seven-Eleven," I said. "I'll get some tea bags, milk, and sugar, and something from the Hostess rack."
我们坐在厨房的桌子旁又聊了一些。周五晚上不用一个人度过真是太好了。很高兴知道世界上除了斯蒂芬妮之外还有其他女人。和玛丽谈话很愉快。
We sat at my kitchen table and talked some more. It was good not to spend Friday night by myself. It was good to know that there were other women in the world besides Stephanie. It was good to talk with Mary.
“哦，多漂亮的猫啊，”玛丽说，我室友的猫跳到她的腿上，发出咕噜声。
"Oh, what a nice cat," Mary said as my roommate's cat jumped up onto her lap and purred.
“是啊，有猫在身边真好。”我撒了谎。“它是我室友的。”
"Yeah, it's nice to have the cat around," I lied. "It belongs to my roommate."
“哦，我想水已经准备好了，”玛丽说，水壶开始发出隆隆声。
"Oh, I think the water's ready," Mary said as the kettle started to rumble.
当我把杯子拿到桌子上时，我把一些热水洒在了地板上。
I spilled some hot water on the floor when I brought the cups to the table.
“没问题，”我说。“我用纸巾擦一下就可以了。” 热水在原本脏兮兮的灰色地板上留下了一个白点。“呃，我一直想做一些清洁工作，”我说。
"No problem," I said. "I'll just wipe it up with a paper towel." The hot water left a white spot on the otherwise dirt-gray floor. "Uh, I've been meaning to do some cleaning," I said.
“别担心，”她说，让我摆脱了困境。
"Don't worry about it," she said, letting me off the hook.
她的美丽与她的脸型无关。我们没有亲吻晚安，也没有碰触。她是我的朋友。
She was beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with the layout of her face. We didn't kiss goodnight, didn't touch. She was my friend.
10 月 20 日星期二
Tuesday, October 20
吉夫托普洛斯自己做辅导，贝雷塔坐在小教室的前排，帮助解决吉夫托普洛斯以前没有听过的任何问题。房间最近重新装修过，采用了间接照明，一天结束时感觉几乎像家一样。吉夫托普洛斯穿着他的羊绒毛衣，在我们开始寻求如何做本周习题的提示之前，他尝试了单口喜剧。
Gyftopoulos did his own tutorials, with Beretta sitting in the front row of the small classroom to help with any questions that Gyftopoulos hadn't heard before. The room had recently been redone with indirect lighting, and at the end of the day it felt almost homey. Gyftopoulos wore his cashmere sweater and before we started begging for hints for how to do that week's problem set, he tried his hand at stand-up comedy.
“你知道，我们已经开始谈论化学反应，我们使用符号 nu。嗯，这让我想起了 1954 年我第一次演讲的时候。我很年轻，我不得不承认，我有点紧张。讲了一个半小时，并在黑板上一遍又一遍地写着希腊字母后，其中一个学生说，‘对不起，教授……有什么新鲜事吗？’”
"You know, we've been starting to talk about chemical reaction, for which we use the symbol nu. Well, that reminds me of the time I was giving my first lecture back in 1954. 1 was young and, I have to admit, I was a little nervous. After talking about an hour and a half and writing the Greek letter over and over again on the board, one of the students said, 'Excuse me professor.... What's new?'"
我尽职尽责地笑了。几个人发出嘶嘶声。
I laughed dutifully. Several people hissed.
吉夫托普洛斯随后回答了问题。坐在第二排的穿着军装的家伙快速举起了手，一副僵硬的军人动作。他问了一个关于当天早上分发的习题集的问题，习题集将在两周内到期。
Gyftopoulos then fielded questions. The guy wearing the army uniform who sat in the second row raised his hand quickly, in a rigid military motion. He asked a question about the problem set that had been handed out that morning, due in two weeks.
“我认为我们还不需要考虑这些，”他说。“我们集中讨论下周要交的习题吧。不过，你的急切让我想起了一个小故事。好像有一个中士收到了一份电报，说他的一个士兵的母亲去世了。他不知道如何向那个名叫舒尔茨的士兵提出这个问题。所以他让所有的人都排好队，然后他说：“每个有妈妈的人都站出来。” 当这些人走上前时，他说：“别那么快，舒尔茨。” ”
"I don't think we need to look at those yet," he said. "Let's focus on the problem set that's due next week. Your eagerness, though, reminds me of a little story. It seems that there was a sergeant who received a telegram that one of his soldiers' mother had died. He didn't know how to bring it up to the soldier, whose name happened to be Schultz. So he had all his men line up, and he said, 'Everyone who has a mom step forward.' As the men stepped forward, he said, 'Not so fast, Schultz.' "
大家都嘲笑那个人。
Everyone laughed at that one.
“好了，玩够了。我们回去工作吧，”他说。“还有其他问题吗？”
"Well, enough of the fun and games. Let's get back to work," he said. "Are there any other questions?"
“费瑟亲？” 戴着金丝框眼镜、留着浓密小胡子的家伙说道。
"Pro-Fesser?" the guy with wire-rimmed glasses and a bushy mustache said.
“是的，刘易斯。”
"Yes, Lewis."
“你能复习一下最后一套习题中关于热电联产的问题吗？”
"Could you go over the problem on cogeneration on the last problem set?"
“当然可以。你有问题陈述的副本吗？”
"Certainly. Do you have a copy of the problem statement?"
刘易斯把它从活页夹上取下来。吉夫托普洛斯放下香烟，走到黑板前。坐在我旁边的化学工程师低声说道：“我不了解你，但他抽烟让我感到紧张。我宁愿核工程师更规避风险。”
Lewis unclipped it from his binder. Gyftopoulos put his cigarette down and went to the blackboard. The chemical engineer sitting next to me whispered, "I don't know about you, but it makes me nervous that he smokes. I'd rather that a nuclear engineer was a little more risk-averse."
“至少它们是过滤嘴香烟。”我低声回答道。
"At least they're filter cigarettes," I whispered back.
吉夫托普洛斯开始解释。“如您所知，热电联产是用一台发动机（通常是柴油发动机或燃气轮机）同时产生电力和有用热量。我们想要做的是最大限度地减少燃料的总体使用量以保护环境。我们意识到，必须是含有燃烧产物的烟囱，或者像有些人所说的“污染产物”，但如果我们设计的系统能够满足工业过程或家庭供暖的电力和热能需求，我们就可以最大限度地减少产品顺便说一下，我要向大家强调一点，如果你在未来的职业生涯中涉足能源行业，你会发现可以赚到大量的钱。但是你永远不要忘记这一点作为一名工程师，你不能想到钱，而应该想到如何造福社会。”
Gyftopoulos started his explanation. "As you know, cogeneration is the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heat with one engine, typically a diesel engine or a gas turbine. What we want to do is to minimize the overall use of fuel to protect the environment. We realize that there have to be smokestacks with products of combustion, or as some would say, 'products of pollution,' but if we design systems with a match between needs for electricity and heat either for industrial processes or for heating of homes, we can minimize the products of pollution. And by the way, let me emphasize one point to you. If in your future careers you become involved in the energy industry, you will see that there is a tremendous amount of money to be made. But you must never forget that as an engineer you must not think of the money, but rather how you can benefit society."
吉夫托普洛斯继续解释问题。在剩下的时间里，其他问题仍在继续。学生们偶尔会讲一些俏皮话，每次离开时都会遭到吉夫托普洛斯的反驳。气氛是融洽的、没有威胁性的、人性化的。
Gyftopoulos continued the explanation of the problem. Other questions continued for the rest of the hour. There were occasional wisecracks from the students, never left without a rebuttal from Gyftopoulos. The atmosphere was collegial, nonthreatening, human.
那天晚上，玛丽、马特、卡洛斯和我在卡洛斯的办公室见面，讨论一些液体问题。马特提出了继续的方法。对于一个给定的问题，我们中的一个人会在黑板上画出问题陈述并开始解决。如果谁遇到了问题，我们其他人就会帮助他或她。“让我们从伯努利方程的一些问题开始，”马特说。“玛丽，你想尝试一下吗？”
That night Mary, Matt, Carlos, and I met in Carlos's office to go over some fluids problems. Matt suggested the way to proceed. For a given problem, one of us would draw the problem statement on the blackboard and start the solution. The rest of us would help whoever was doing the problem if he or she came to a dead end. "Let's start with some of these problems with the Bernoulli equation," Matt said. "Do you want to give one a shot, Mary?"
“当然，”她说。“这是我昨晚研究的一个问题 D-28。它是一个化油器。但首先每个人都理解伯努利方程，对吗？”
"Sure," she said. "Here's one that I worked on last nightproblem D-28. It's a carburetor. But first everyone understands the Bernoulli equation, right?"
马特和卡洛斯点点头，我摇了摇头。“我理解夏皮罗在课堂上所做的推导，伯努利方程如何从纳维-斯托克斯方程中分离出来，但我在物理上并不完全理解它。”
Matt and Carlos nodded and I shook my head. "I understand the derivation Shapiro did in class, how the Bernoulli equation falls out of the Navier-Stokes equations, but I don't fully understand it physically."
“是的，这有点像硬汉，”她说。“想象一下，伯努利坐在佛罗伦萨老桥上他表弟的珠宝店里。他低头看着阿尔诺河，试图弄清楚他为美第奇基金会的下一个研究计划应该放些什么。他看着河中央的两块岩石。河，他注意到水流在它们之间加速。他对资助研究有了一个开创性的想法。“如果我沿着溪流穿过岩石的路径画一条线，然后想象一小管流体沿着这条线流过，那个小管的能量必须沿着这条线保持恒定。知道了？”
"Yeah, it is kind of a toughie," she said. "Just imagine Bernoulli sitting in his cousin's jewelry shop on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. He's looking down at the Arno trying to figure out what to put in his next research proposal for the Medici Foundation. He's looking at two rocks in the middle of the river, and he notices that the water speeds up between them. He has a seminal idea for fundable research. 'If I draw a line following the path of the stream through the rocks, and then imagine a little tube of fluid going along that line, the energy of that little tube has to be constant along that line.' Got it?"
我上下点头。“我明白了很多，但我还是不明白物理意义。我的意思是，你会认为如果流体加速，它就会有更多的能量，就像汽车开得越快，动能就越大。”我说。
I nodded up and down. "I understand that much, but I still don't have the physical meaning down. I mean, you'd think if the fluid sped up it would have more energy, just like a car has more kinetic energy the faster it goes," I said.
玛丽继续说道：“但是动能必须来自某个地方。它来自于流体静压中储存的能量。这样想：小管子是一个被压缩的小弹簧，里面有一大堆这些小压缩弹簧彼此平行移动。它们穿过岩石的唯一方法就是放松一点。对于这个小弹簧，放松意味着弹簧的前部移开从泉水的后面。所有其他泉水都做同样的事情，水穿过岩石，senza Problema。当压缩弹簧膨胀时，它存储的能量较少。压力能减少的量等于动能或速度能的增加。”
Mary continued, "But the kinetic energy has to come from somewhere. And it comes from the energy stored in the static pressure of the fluid. Think of it like this: the little tube is a little spring that's compressed, and there's a whole bunch of these little compressed springs moving along parallel to each other. The only way they're all going to make it through the rocks is to loosen up a little bit. For this little spring, loosening up means that the front of the spring moves away from the back of the spring. All the other springs do the same thing and the water goes through the rocks, senza problema. When a compressed spring expands, it has less energy stored in it. The amount of decrease in pressure energy is equal to the increase in kinetic or speed energy."
“好吧。我买那个，”我回答道。“但是夏皮罗今天说它只适用于不可压缩流。如果流是不可压缩的，压力怎么会上下呢？”
"OK. I'll buy that," I answered. "But Shapiro said today that it only applied to incompressible flows. If the flow is incompressible, how can the pressure go up and down?"
卡洛斯也加入其中。“不可压缩只是意味着当你施加压力时，体积不会改变。就像你在一些水上施加重量，体积不会改变，但压力会上升。想一想，这就像一个这里的学生。他们给我们施加了很大的压力，但我们的音量没有改变。”
Carlos jumped in on that one. "Incompressible just means that the volume doesn't change when you apply the pressure. It's like if you put a weight on some water, the volume doesn't change but the pressure goes up. Come to think of it, it's like being a student here. They put lots of pressure on us but our volume doesn't change."
如果我们能帮忙的话就不会。
Not if we can help it.
玛丽又回到了问题上。“这是一个化油器，”她重申道。
Mary went back to the problem. "It's a carburetor," she reiterated.
“他们想知道需要多少空气通过多小的管子才能从管子外部的孔中引入指定量的液体。现在，我们不再让水流过阿诺河中的几块岩石，而是“空气通过管子。当其静压降至大气压以下时，它会吸入大气压下的燃料。空气在管子中流动的速度越快，压力就越低，吸入的燃料就越多。”
"They want to know how much air has to go through how small a tube to bring in a specified amount of fluid from the holes around the outside of the tube. Now instead of water going through a couple of rocks in the Arno, we have air going through the tube. When its static pressure goes down below atmospheric, it sucks in fuel that's at atmospheric pressure. The faster the air goes in the tube, the lower the pressure will be, and the more fuel it will pull in."
她继续建立方程并推导出与问题的几何形状相关的燃料流量。我以前看过流体力学，但这里的问题不同。在概念是抽象的之前，这里它们是有形的。夏皮罗课堂上的许多几何图形和问题都是真实的设备。我记得罗森诺告诉我，一位物理学家推导出一种现象的方程，然后说“万岁”，一位工程师从物理学家推导出的方程开始，然后尝试构建一些可行的东西。
She went on to set up the equations and derive the fuel flow rate as related to the geometry of the problem. I had seen fluid mechanics before, but the problems here were different. Before the concepts were abstract-here they were tangible. Many of the geometries and the problems in Shapiro's class were real devices. I remembered Rohsenow's telling me that a physicist derives equations for a phenomenon and says "Hooray," and an engineer starts with the equations the physicist derives and then tries to build something that works.
“好了，”玛丽一边说，一边在黑板底部圈出了答案。“下一个？”
"There," Mary said as she circled the answer on the bottom of the chalkboard. "Next?"
“有人能解释一下为什么茶叶最终会出现在杯子的中央吗？” 我问。“自从我看到花生漫画中薄荷帕蒂问这个问题以来，我就想知道答案。”
"Can someone explain why the tea leaves end up in the center of the cup?" I asked. "Ever since I saw the Peanuts cartoon where Peppermint Patty asks that, I've wanted to know the answer."
“我可以帮忙解决这个问题，”马特说。“这是夏皮罗制作的一部电影中的内容；我在服用本科生液体时看到了它。这就是他们所说的二次流。当你搅拌茶时，液体会绕圈旋转，就像旋转木马上的马一样神秘的是，你可能期望茶叶会因为离心力而跑到茶杯的外面，就像你乘坐快速旋转木马一样。但事实并非如此——它们最终进入了茶杯的内部。中心。让我把它画在黑板上。”
"I can help out on that one," Matt said. "It was in one of those films Shapiro produced; I saw it when I took undergrad fluids. It's what they call a secondary flow. When you stir the tea, the liquid goes around in circles, like horses on a merry-go-round. The mystery is that you might expect the tea leaves to go to the outside of the teacup because of centrifugal force, just like when you're on a fast merry-go-round. But they don't-they end up in the center. Let me draw it on the board."
他画了一个垂直的圆柱体，上面有一个圆形箭头来指示旋转。我想知道我是否会像马特和玛丽一样聪明。让受过麻省理工学院本科教育的人与背景较差的人一起上课似乎几乎不公平。
He drew a vertical cylinder with a circular arrow above it to indicate rotation. I wondered whether I'd ever be as smart as Matt and Mary. It seemed almost unfair to let people with MIT undergrad educations loose in classes with people with lesser backgrounds.
“如果你想象圆柱体中任意高度的一小块流体，有点像旋转木马上的一匹长方形的马，它会受到从靠近中心的一侧推动的压力，并且压力也会推动它从靠近旋转木马外侧的一侧看。外侧的压力必须大于内侧的压力，以平衡大块流体的离心力。在圆柱体的底部，距中心一定距离处的压力与圆柱体顶部的压力相同。但是，由于杯子底部产生的摩擦，茶和茶叶在底部的移动速度也较慢。你知道就像你在旋转木马上一样，你走得越慢，你的离心力就越小。所以，如果你的外部压力仍然大于内部压力，并且离心力较小，你，茶块加上茶叶，会移动到杯子的中心。事实上，有些茶总是在循环，从杯子的中心向上，穿过顶部，向下到侧面，然后沿着杯子回到中心。底端。”
"If you imagine a little chunk of fluid at any height in the cylinder, sort of like a rectangular horse on the merry-go-round, it'll have pressure pushing on it from the side closer to the center and pressure pushing on it from the side closer to the outside of the merry-go-round. The pressure on the outside has to be greater than the pressure on the inside, to balance the centrifugal force of the chunk of fluid. On the bottom of the cylinder, the pressure at a given distance from the center is the same as it is at the top of the cylinder. But the tea and the tea leaves, too, go slower at the bottom because of the friction caused by the bottom of the cup. You know that, just like when you're on the merry-go-round, the slower you go, the less centrifugal force you have. So if you still have more pressure on the outside than on the inside, and less centrifugal force, you, the chunk of tea plus leaves, are going to move to the center of the cup. In fact, some of the tea is always circulating, up the center of the cup, across the top, down the side, and back to the center along the bottom."
我说：“谢谢。我想我已经明白了。还有其他人想问的问题吗？”
I said, "Thanks. I think I've got it. Anybody else have any questions they want to go over?"
卡洛斯说：“B 部分存在消防水带问题。如果消防水带每分钟向火中水平输送 800 加仑，并且一名消防员可以提供 125 磅的水平力，那么需要多少名消防员才能阻止火灾发生？”消防水龙带像野蛇一样乱窜吗？”
Carlos said, "There's this fire hose problem from section B. 'If a fire hose is delivering 800 gallons per minute to a fire, horizontally, and a fireman can provide a horizontal force of 125 pounds, how many firemen will it take to prevent the fire hose from flailing around like a wild snake?"
“我认为你能解决这个问题，”我说。“这是一个动量定理问题。你只需要计算出消防水龙带中有多少动量以及多快。这等于力。”
"I think you can solve that one," I said. "It's a momentum theorem problem. You just have to figure out how much momentum is going out of the fire hose and how fast. That equals the force."
我写在黑板上。首先，我根据喷嘴的尺寸计算了水离开软管的速度。每秒 100 英尺，或每小时约 70 英里。这是最简单的部分，任何八年级学生都可以做的部分。在日本。下面我计算了每秒有多少磅的水离开软管（大约 100 磅）。
I wrote on the board. First I calculated how fast the water was leaving the hose, on the basis of the size of the nozzle. 100 feet per second, or about 70 miles an hour. That was the easy part, the part that any eighth grader can do. In Japan. Below that I calculated how many pounds of water were leaving the hose each second (about 100 pounds).
然后我将这两个数字转换为公制并将它们相乘。这给了我以牛顿为单位的力，以艾萨克爵士的名字命名。然后我将其换算回英镑，得到答案：2.8 消防员。
Then I converted both numbers to the metric system and multiplied them together. This gave me the force, in newtons, named for Sir Isaac. Then I converted it back to pounds and had the answer-2.8 firemen.
我的同事们对我的解决方案表示赞赏，玛丽补充道，“这让我想起了我的新生导师在我来这里的第一周时所说的话。‘在麻省理工学院接受教育就像从消防水龙带里喝水一样。’” ”
My colleagues applauded my solution, and Mary added, "That reminds me of what my freshman adviser said during my first week here. 'Getting an education at MIT is like getting a drink of water from a fire hose.' "
章节
C H A P T E R
5
5
资金
Funding
11 月 2 日
November 2
星期一下午三点我进去和汤姆·布莱谈话。汤姆·布莱 (Tom Bligh) 是机械工程系的常驻节能、太阳能和替代能源专家。他原本是英属南非人，后来在明尼苏达大学担任助理教授。在那里，他因地下建筑而闻名（由于地面的隔热性能和稳定的温度，如此设计的建筑需要更少的燃料来加热和冷却）。他还开发了一种系统，可以在冬天制冰，然后在夏天将其融化用于空调。
Monday at three o'clock I went in to talk to Tom Bligh. Tom Bligh was the Mechanical Engineering department's resident energy conservation, solar, and alternative energy guru. Originally a British South African, he'd paid his dues as assistant professor at the University of Minnesota. There he'd made a name for himself in underground buildings (buildings so designed need less fuel to heat and cool because of the insulating value and stable temperature of the ground). He'd also developed a system to make ice in the winter and then melt it in the summer for air-conditioning.
麻省理工学院聘他为副教授；他与能源部有几个正在进行的项目——卡特时代的赠款，当时政府资助了这类事情。
MIT recruited him as an associate professor; he had several ongoing projects with the Department of Energy-grants from the Carter era, when the government funded those kinds of things.
布莱的办公室位于 3 号楼的四楼，与伍迪·弗劳尔斯 (Woodie Flowers) 的办公室隔着走廊，伍迪·弗劳尔斯教授一门名为“事物如何运作”的课程。大厅稍远一点的地方是机器人奇才 Warren Seering，他每月将咨询费提高 10 美元，以减缓业务发展。
Bligh's office was on the fourth floor of Building 3, down the hall from that of Woodie Flowers, who taught a course called "How Things Work." A little farther down the hall was Warren Seering, the robotics whiz who raised his consulting fees by $10 an hour every month in an effort to slow business.
四楼是该部门的设计部门。他们是发明家，是真正有创造力的人。虽然该研究所的许多人一只脚在科学上，另一只脚在工程上，两只手都插在政府的口袋里，但四楼会以每小时数千美元的价格出租给产品开发人员，只是为了互相交流想法。
The fourth floor housed the design section of the department. These were the inventors, the truly creative. While many at the institute had one foot in science, the other in engineering, and two hands in the government's pockets, the fourth floor would rent itself out to product developers for thousands of dollars an hour just to shout ideas back and forth to one another.
布莱办公室旁边的展示柜里放着前一年的学生项目——一个带有自动翻页器的乐谱架。布莱办公室外的候诊室里贴着一张海报，上面写着：“如果你喜欢某样东西，就放手吧。如果它回到你身边，它就是你的。如果没有，它就永远不是你的。” 这是我第一次看到这张海报，所以它对我来说意义重大；这让我想起了斯蒂芬妮。
In the display case next to Bligh's office was a student project from the year before-a music stand with an automatic page turner. In the waiting room outside Bligh's office was a poster that read, "If you love something let it go. If it comes back to you it's yours. If it doesn't it never was." It was the first time I'd seen that poster, so it meant something to me; it reminded me of Stephanie.
“你好，教授，”我说。“我想申请 15,000 美元的林德伯格奖学金，我想知道你是否有兴趣成为我的教员赞助商。一般领域是替代能源，我有一个项目的想法。 ”
"Hello, Professor," I said. "I'd like to apply for a Lindbergh Fellowship for $15,000 and I'd like to know whether you'd be interested in being my faculty sponsor. The general area is alternative energy, and I've got an idea for a project."
“请叫我汤姆，”他说。他的办公室有一个天窗。论文和模型无处不在。他有一头棕色的头发，留着胡须，戴着眼镜，四十岁左右。
"Please, call me Tom," he said. His office had a skylight. Papers and models were everywhere. He had brown hair, a beard, and glasses and was about forty.
他继续说道，“好吧，如果你能接受申请一笔纪念法西斯的拨款，我很乐意帮助你。”
He continued, "Well, if you can stomach applying for a grant in memory of a fascist, I'd be happy to help you."
“为什么他是法西斯分子？” 我问。
"Why was he a fascist?" I asked.
“他在第二次世界大战中非常支持德国，非常反对美国介入。有很多关于这方面的书籍，”他说。
"He was very pro-German in World War II, very much against U.S. involvement. Plenty of books have been written about it," he said.
“我只知道他是一名技术专家和飞行员。这就是我申请这笔拨款时需要考虑的一切。我需要这笔钱。”
"All I know is he was a technologist and aviator. That's all I need to think about when I apply for this grant. I need the money."
“好吧，那你有什么想法吗？” 布莱问道。
"All right, then, what's your idea?" Bligh asked.
“嗯，这是我去年从比利时的一个朋友那里得到的想法。你知道堪萨斯州和内布拉斯加州的冬天会变得非常寒冷和多风吗？为什么不拥有一个风车来直接驱动热泵来为房子供暖呢？”还是谷仓？风越大，风车驱动热泵的电力就越多，因此风的冷却效果将被泵送的热量增加所抵消，”我说。
"Well, it's an idea I got from a friend of mine in Belgium last year. You know how it gets really cold and windy in Kansas and Nebraska in the winter? Why not have a windmill that drives a heat pump directly to heat the house or the barn? The windier it gets, the more power will be available from the windmill to drive the heat pump, so the cooling effect of the wind will be negated by the increased heat that's pumped," I said.
“等一下，我给我的专利律师打电话，”他开玩笑说，然后又恢复严肃。“你能向我解释一下热泵的工作原理吗？”
"Hold on a minute while I call my patent attorney," he joked, then went back to being serious. "Can you explain to me how a heat pump works?"
这是一次友好的质问，所以我如实回答。“不是真的。我所知道的是，这有点像反向空调。在获得资助后我可以弄清楚这一点。”
It was a friendly cross-examination, so I answered honestly. "Not really. All I know is that it's sort of like an air conditioner in reverse. I could figure that out after I get the grant."
“这就是精神，”他讽刺地说，但这也是一个成功的时间管理者的智慧。“我们现在先把一个大纲放在一起，然后你可以在一周左右的时间里带着一个充实的版本回来。你打算调查什么？” 他问。
"That's the spirit," he said with irony, but also the wisdom of a successful time manager. "Let's put an outline together now, then you can come back in a week or so with a fleshed-out version. What do you propose to investigate?" he asked.
“首先，我会将风车视为现成的物品。也许你甚至可以使用他们用来抽水的风车，并将转换套件连接到不同的齿轮机构。然后我会查看功率曲线“风车和热泵在不同温度下的性能曲线，然后我会推荐不同的尺寸匹配策略。最后，我会进行一些经济分析，计算出传统燃油供暖系统的投资回报。”
"First, I'd take the windmill as an off-the-shelf item. Maybe you could even use one they use to pump water and attach a conversion kit to a different gear mechanism. Then I'd look at the power curves for the windmill and the performance curves for the heat pump at different temperatures, and then I'd recommend different size-matching strategies. Finally, I'd put together some economic analysis, figure out the payback over a conventional oilfired heating system."
“这是你的四个部分。一周后见。”
"There are your four sections. See you in a week."
11 月 5 日
November 5
夏洛特·埃文斯的包裹将乔·史密斯列为低温学（研究极冷环境）和热电联产（吉夫托普洛斯问题集中的小型发电厂）方面的专家。我对寒冷没有太多兴趣，但热电联产似乎是防止极地冰盖融化的好方法。
Charlotte Evans's packet listed Joe Smith as a specialist in cryogenics, the study of the very cold, and cogeneration, the small power plants in Gyftopoulos's problem sets. I didn't have much interest in the very cold, but cogeneration seemed to be a great way to keep the polar ice caps from melting.
终身教授乔·史密斯（Joe Smith）的办公室位于高压磁体实验室附近的一侧。他是一名机械工程师，使电气工程师的磁铁保持足够冷以进行超导测试。他的窗户俯瞰着麻省理工学院的蒸汽热电厂。
Joe Smith, tenured professor, had his office off to one side, near the high-voltage magnet laboratory. He, a mechanical engineer, kept the electrical engineers' magnet cold enough to do tests in superconductivity. His window overlooked MIT's steam heat generating plant.
“我能为你做什么，儿子？” 他带着慈父般的口音问道。
"What can I do for you, son?" he asked in a fatherly manner, with a southern accent.
“嗯，我对节能、热电联产、热回收、隔热、太阳能——任何节省能源的东西都很感兴趣。我看到你从事热电联产工作，”我说。
"Well, I'm interested in energy conservation, cogeneration, heat recovery, insulation, solar energy-anything that saves energy. I saw that you do work in cogeneration," I said.
“是的，我愿意，但现在我里面没有钱，”他说，靠在椅子上，双脚放在桌子上，双手抱在脑后。“不过，如果你能自己在该领域筹集一些资金，我很乐意成为你的顾问。” 他让我想起了南方种植园主。
"Yes I do, but right now I don't have any money in it," he said, leaning back in his chair, his feet up on the desk and hands clasped behind his head. "If you can come up with some funding in that area on your own, though, I'd be happy to be your adviser." He reminded me of a southern plantation owner.
“只是一个小建议，儿子，”他补充道。“当你从事能源工作时，假装你正在经营采矿作业。集中精力寻找并从你正在开采的集中区域中提取最多的资源。不要担心从矿渣堆中回收任何东西。你你会花费比你从中得到的更多的时间和精力。”
"Just a little piece of advice, son," he added. "When you work on energy, pretend you're running a mining operation. Focus your efforts on finding and extracting the most out of the concentrated areas of what you're mining. Don't worry about recovering anything from the slag heap. You'll spend more time and energy than you'll ever get out of it."
我记得高中时看过一个电视节目。寺里的法师也这么说谜语。当我明白他的意思后，我就可以离开了。
I remembered watching a TV show in high school. The master at the monastery talked in riddles like that, too. When I understand what he means, I can leave.
11 月 16 日
November 16
这本光滑的黄色小册子热情洋溢地讲述了这位汽车租赁巨头的爱国主义——他的辛勤工作和决心，加上市场的自由，如何使他积累了财富。现在他想通过为有才华的理工科学生提供免费乘车来回报国家。
The yellow glossy brochure spoke glowingly about the patriotism of the rental car magnate-how his hard work and determination, plus the freedom of the marketplace, had enabled him to build a fortune. Now he wanted to repay the country by providing free rides to talented science and engineering students.
该小册子指出，“强大的技术队伍对于强大的防御、保持相对于对手的技术优势至关重要。邀请致力于这些原则的个人申请该奖学金。该奖学金包括学费、书籍和用品津贴以及每月800美元的免税津贴。”
The brochure noted, "A strong technical workforce is essential for a strong defense, to maintain technological superiority over our adversaries. Individuals committed to these principles are invited to apply for the fellowship. The fellowship includes tuition, an allowance for books and supplies, and a stipend of $800 per month, free of taxes."
我的申请已经审核完毕，面试安排在上午十点在德雷珀进行。Draper Laboratories 的标志有一系列圆圈和 D 内的一个靶心点。由于他们的主要产品涉及瞄准物体，所以靶心点是有意义的。大厅里有德雷珀开发的惯性制导系统模型。这些陀螺仪允许飞机在自动驾驶下运行。他们让人类在月球上行走。它们使洲际弹道导弹能够飞行数千英里并在距离目标数百英尺的范围内着陆。
My application had been reviewed and my interview was scheduled for ten in the morning at Draper. Draper Laboratories' logo had a series of circles and a bull's-eye point inside the D. Since their main product involved aiming things, the bull's eye made sense. The lobby had models of the inertial guidance systems developed at Draper. These gyroscopes allow airplanes to operate under automatic pilot. They let men walk on the moon. And they enable intercontinental ballistic missiles to fly thousands of miles and land within hundreds of feet of target.
黑色的头发涂满了油脂，穿着人造丝衬衫、涤纶领带，双层针织夹克上盖着鼓鼓的肩部皮套，给杰克逊医生打电话。杰克逊医生到达并为我签了名。然后我们俩乘电梯到了四楼。这座新建筑建于 1976 年，外观时尚、白色，八层楼的每一层都采用玻璃连续包裹。我别在棕色花呢夹克上的访客徽章向前突出了一点。会议室有一扇窗户，可以看到百老汇对面和汉普郡街到萨默维尔的景色。走廊上的大部分门都关着，配有打孔密码锁。
The guard-greased black hair, rayon shirt, polyester tie, and double-knit jacket covering a bulging shoulder holster-telephoned Dr. Jackson. Dr. Jackson arrived and signed me in; then we both took the elevator to the fourth floor. The new building, built in 1976, was sleek and white with glass that wrapped continuously around each of the eight floors. The visitor's badge I clipped to my brown tweed jacket stuck forward a little. The conference room had a window, with a view across Broadway and up Hampshire Street into Somerville. Most of the doors on the hallway were closed, with punch code locks.
采访的唯一问题涉及能源。两位工程博士要我告诉他们如何从河流中提取能量。不是像我在瑞士看到的那样，是在瀑布、水坝或水库，管道通向山下 3,000 英尺的涡轮机，而是从一条缓缓蜿蜒的河流开始。
The only question of the interview concerned energy. The two engineering doctors wanted me to tell them how I would extract power from the flow of a river. Not at a waterfall, or a dam, or a reservoir with a pipe going to a turbine 3,000 feet down the moun tain like I'd seen in Switzerland, but from a river gently meandering along.
“嗯，”我回答道，“我想你可以在河中央放一根管道，并在管道的下游端放一个涡轮机。”
"Well," I answered, "I suppose you could put a pipe in the middle of the river and put a turbine at the downstream end of the pipe."
“你如何计算功率输出？管道和水面之间的角度会产生影响吗？”
"How would you calculate the power output? Would the angle between the pipe and the water surface make a difference?"
好问题。我想问我是否可以离开并在几个小时内回到他们身边。相反，我在口头上支支吾吾了几分钟，直到其中一个人说：“我想我们已经听够了。感谢您接受我们的采访。”
Good questions. I wanted to ask whether I could leave and get back to them in a couple of hours. Instead I verbally fumbled for several minutes, until one of them said, "I think we've heard enough. Thank you for interviewing with us."
外面有一群示威者，还有一个矮个子、稀疏的胡须、白发男子，手里拿着一根上面有地球仪的棍子。它看起来就像一个巨大的蓝色和绿色的Tootsie Pop。
Outside was a group of several demonstrators, and a short, thin-bearded, white-haired man holding a stick with a globe on it. It looked like a giant blue and green Tootsie Pop.
其他人在白色床单上自制的横幅毛毡字母上写着：“解除武装需要智慧、爱和怜悯。”
The others' homemade banner-felt letters on a white sheetsaid, "To disarm requires wisdom, love, and mercy."
我想，剑桥自由主义者。为什么这些人不做一些对经济有生产力的事情呢？
Cambridge liberals, I thought. Why don't these people do something productive for the economy?
其中一个给了我一张绿色的纸。我环顾四周，看看是否有摄像机指向我的方向，然后接受了。
One of them offered me a green sheet of paper. I looked around to see whether there were any video cameras pointing in my direction, then accepted.
传单上写着：“自1979年以来，每周一，德雷珀都会举行非暴力守夜活动。充分意识到我们个人在实践非暴力爱方面的失败，我们继续选择见证非暴力爱之道的真相，以此作为我们的道路。” “为了和平。我们发誓要通过我们的沉默见证、我们的传单、抗税、为穷人服务、直接行动以及在监狱服刑来表达这一真理。”
The leaflet read, "Every Monday since 1979, a nonviolent vigil has taken place at Draper. Fully conscious of our personal failures in the practice of nonviolent love, we continue to choose to witness to the truth of the way of nonviolent love as the way to peace. We vow to express this truth in our silent witness, our leaflets, tax resistance, service to the poor, direct actions, and in serving time in jail."
我想知道他们所说的直接行动是什么意思。我想知道这些人是否认为自己是真正的美国人，他们对防御的必要性有什么认识。也许它们是苏联资助的小昆虫，试图破坏德雷珀的工程师和科学家的承诺。或者也许，只是也许，他们是对的。我记得我的祖先离开了一个安全、防守严密的岛屿（英格兰），驶向世界的边缘，与印第安人交朋友。
I wondered what they meant by direct action. I wondered whether these people considered themselves real Americans, what sense they had of the need for defense. Maybe they were little Soviet-funded gnats trying to undermine the commitment of Draper's engineers and scientists. Or maybe, just maybe, they were right. I remembered that my ancestors had left a secure, well-defended island (England) to sail off the edge of the world and make friends with the Indians.
我在学生中心的咖啡厅遇见了吉姆·斯图尔特（Jim Stuart），并向他讲述了这次面试的情况。“你可能不会明白，”他说。“我听说这些只适合全A本科生。此外，我不确定你是否想要它。他们说没有附加条件，但他们确实推动你从事国防工作。他们鼓励你有高——支付国防实验室的暑期工作费用，然后这是你唯一知道的事情。我实验室的一个人的一个朋友就有这样的经历，直到为时已晚才知道发生了什么。我认为他最终陷入了精神错乱医院。”
I met Jim Stuart at the student center coffee shop and told him about the interview. "You probably won't get it," he said. "I heard those only go to straight-A undergraduates. Besides, I'm not sure you'd want it. They say there're no strings attached, but they really push you into defense work. They encourage you to have high-paying summer jobs at defense labs, and then that's the only thing you know. A friend of a guy from my lab had one of those and didn't know what was happening until it was too late. I think he ended up in a mental hospital."
11 月 17 日星期二
Tuesday, November 17
弗雷德里克·韦尔（Frederick Weare）在部门时事通讯中登出广告：“提供研究助理职位。对地质结构断裂进行高压应用。赞助商：美孚。” 翻译：我们以碎石为生。
Frederick Weare had advertised in the department newsletter: "Research Assistantship available. High-pressure application to fracture in geological structures. Sponsor: Mobil." Translation: Weare crushed rocks for a living.
据传言，我们每天骑自行车往返于十五英里外的尼达姆公寓。还有传言说，他的妻子最近和他离婚了，因为她再也没有见过他。
Weare, rumor had it, rode his bicycle to and from his apartment fifteen miles away in Needham every day. Rumor also had it that his wife had recently divorced him because she never saw him anymore.
我的预约是在一天结束的时候，在位于 3 号楼地下室的韦尔实验室。实验室有几个黑色桌面，上面放着含油岩石的样本、电子电路的碎片、几台示波器、微型绿色电视屏幕装在精美的盒子里，前面有很多旋钮。
My appointment was at the end of the day in Weare's lab in the basement of Building 3. The lab had several black tabletops with samples of oil-laden rock on them, and bits and pieces of electronic circuitry and several oscilloscopes, miniature green TV screens in fancy boxes with lots of knobs on front.
韦尔很年轻，身材苗条，金发，留着小胡子。他的眼神看上去有些疲倦。他说话带着轻微的口音，好像他已经在海外某个地方待了很长一段时间，但我无法辨认。也许他来自爱尔兰。
Weare was young and quite slim, with blond hair and a mustache. His eyes looked a little tired. He spoke with a slight accent, as if he'd been overseas somewhere for an extended period, but I couldn't place it. Maybe he was originally from Ireland.
“你的专长是什么？” 他在采访一开始就问我。
"What's your expertise?" he asked me early in the interview.
我不知道我已经具备了专业知识；我以为我来麻省理工学院就是为了得到它。
I didn't know I was supposed to have expertise already; I thought I had come to MIT to get it.
“呃，好吧，我在流体方面做了很多工作；在布鲁塞尔的冯卡门研究所，我在太阳能储热实验中做了一些仪器、温度测量方面的工作，”我回答道。
"Uh, well, I've done a lot of work with fluids; at the von Karman Institute in Brussels I did some work with instrumentation, temperature measurements, in a solar heat storage experiment," I answered.
威尔笑了。“啊，是的，古老的太阳能。你是环保主义者吗？”
Weare smirked. "Ah yes, good old solar energy. Are you an environmentalist?"
我不知道正确答案。“嗯，有点像，”我说。
I didn't know the right answer. "Well, sort of," I said.
“我也是，”他说。“但是正教授职位是我一生的个人目标之一，我必须进行可资助的研究才能实现这一目标。然后也许我会再次涉足那些软性的东西。”
"So am I," he said. "But full professorship is on my list of lifetime personal goalc, and I have to do fundable research to achieve that. Then maybe I'll dabble in that soft stuff again."
“我的论文项目会对环境产生什么影响？” 我问。
"What would be the environmental impact of my thesis project?" I asked.
“实际上，它比正在开发的许多其他技术的危害要小。我的建议是进行多次地下爆炸，这将对石油产生巨大的压力，从而将其从山上拉出来，而不必将其从山上拉出来。”移走岩石并将其提取到山外，”他说。
"It actually would be less harmful than many of the other technologies under development. What I'm proposing is to make many underground explosions that will create big pressures on the oil and allow it to be pulled up out of the mountain rather than having to remove the rock and extract it outside the mountain," he said.
“嗯，听起来很有趣。你想雇用我吗？” 我问。
"Well, it sounds interesting. Do you think you'd like to hire me?" I asked.
他停了下来。“我会查看你的简历，然后回复你。我还有几个人要面试。如果你在一周内没有收到我的消息，请给我的秘书打电话。”
He paused. "I'll look over your resume and then get back to you. I've got a couple more people to interview. If you don't hear from me within a week, give my secretary a call."
也许还会出现其他事情。
Maybe something else will come up.
那天晚上，我站在传热解答板前，抄下了最新一组问题的答案。他们不只是分发这些解决方案，这仍然让我很恼火。但规则是他们制定的，而我们是工程师，我们不会质疑他们制定的规则。我们只是想解决我们明确定义的问题并看到一个有序的世界，即使这是别人的秩序。
That night I stood at the heat transfer solution board and copied down answers to the latest set of problems. It still annoyed me that they didn't just hand these solutions out. But they make the rules and we're engineers and we don't question the rules they make. We just want to solve our clearly definable problems and see an orderly world, even if it's someone else's order.
解决方案板位于一个上锁的玻璃柜中，在嗡嗡作响的荧光灯下。前面有一个小壁架可以放你的笔记本。灯只照亮黑板，大厅的灯光变暗，因此解决方案板变成了自己的小思想世界。
The solution board is in a locked glass case, under a buzzing fluorescent lamp. There's a little ledge in front of it for your notebook. The lamp illuminates just the board and the hall lights are dimmed, so the solution board becomes its own little world of thought.
格雷格·韦伯斯特（Greg Webster）也在课堂上，他位于解决方案板的另一端。足球赛季结束后的一个周日早上，我在餐厅遇见了他。他报名参加了我的三个班级，还有另外两个班级。
Greg Webster, also in the class, was at the other end of the solution board. I'd met him in the dining hall one Sunday morning after the end of the soccer season. He was enrolled in my three classes, plus two others.
“你的钱存得怎么样了？” 我问。
"How's your money holding out?" I asked.
“我在罗克韦尔航天飞机上工作了两年，银行里的积蓄足够我在这里度过一整年。但我不想花光我的积蓄。”
"I've got enough saved up in the bank from my two years working on the space shuttle at Rockwell to last the whole year here. But I'd rather not deplete my savings."
我怎么能指望与曾在航天飞机上工作过的人竞争呢？我想知道。他可能会获得博士学位。五年后我将在这里看电视，当他作为任务专家走进发现号时，他会微笑着挥手。
How can I hope to compete with somebody who's worked on the space shuttle? I wondered. He'll probably get a Ph.D. here and in five years I'll be watching TV and he'll be smiling and waving as he walks onto Discovery as a mission specialist.
“你呢？” 他问。
"How about you?" he asked.
我应该告诉他关于威尔的事吗？或者我要申请的其他部门通讯列表？他是一个潜在的朋友，但也是一个潜在的竞争对手。
Should I tell him about Weare? Or about the other department newsletter listings I'll apply to? He's a potential friend, but also a potential competitor.
我复制完高级问题 8 的解决方案，并告诉格雷格我所有的线索。
I finished copying the solution to Advanced Problem 8 and told Greg all my leads.
他以同样的方式回答。“这让我想起了，”他说。“斯隆汽车实验室的弗兰克·韦斯特正在找人。他们刚刚与多家发动机公司签订了一份大合同，负责做一些燃烧工作。我今天刚刚和他谈过。我本来会接受的，但看起来他真的在寻找需要一个扳手转动工来进行实验。我想坚持一些更理论化的东西。”
He replied in kind. "That reminds me," he said. "Frank West in the Sloan Auto Lab is looking for someone. They just got some big contract with a bunch of engine companies to do some combustion work. I just talked to him today. I would have taken it but it seems like he's really looking for a wrench turner to get the experiment going. I want to hold out for something more theoretical."
“他的名字你怎么拼写？”
"How do you spell his name?"
11 月 18 日星期三
Wednesday, November 18
韦斯特的办公室一尘不染，每本书都完美地摆放在研究所发行的木制书架上，书架上的玻璃木框书盖可以拉出和放下。粉刷成白色的煤渣砖墙上挂着一幅描绘狩猎场景的挂毯。整个地方闻起来就像卡车停靠站。
West's office was immaculate, with every book perfectly in place in the institute-issue wooden bookshelves with glass-in-woodframe covers that pulled out and down. A tapestry depicting a hunting scene hung on the white-painted cinderblock wall. The whole place smelled like a truck stop.
“多么漂亮的办公室啊，”我说。
"What a beautiful office," I said.
“谢谢你，”他回答道。“自从我大三时在荷兰的一次城堡止赎拍卖中买了十幅挂毯以来，我就一直从事挂毯交易。我把它们带回这里并以五倍于我购买价格的价格出售。”
"Thank you," he answered. "I've been trading in tapestries ever since I bought ten of them at a castle foreclosure sale in Holland during my junior year. I brought them back here and sold them for five times what I paid for them."
我把简历递给他，他看了一遍，满意地点点头。我等待他提出有关我的研究项目的问题。
I handed him my resume and he looked through it, nodding approvingly. I waited for a question from him about my research projects.
“你似乎骑了很多自行车，”他说，指的是我简历中关于在意大利北部骑自行车六个月的条目。“我高中时曾是得克萨斯州自行车冠军。你一定很擅长使用扳手。”
"You seem to have done a lot of bicycling," he said, referring to the entry in my resume about having cycled in northern Italy for six months. "I was a Texas state cycling champion when I was in high school. You must be pretty good with a wrench."
我想，充分利用它的价值。
Milk this for all it's worth, I thought.
“嗯，在过去的几年里，我已经把自行车上的每个轴承拆开、清洗、重新润滑，然后重新组装了大约三遍。”
"Well, I've taken apart every bearing in my bicycle, cleaned, regreased them, and reassembled them about three times in the past few years."
“很好。你愿意为我工作吗？”
"Good. How'd you like to work for me?"
“我很乐意，”我热情地回答。
"I'd love to," I answered enthusiastically.
“太棒了，”他说。“资金从一月份的第一周开始。欢迎加入！”
"Fantastic," he said. "The funding starts the first week in January. Welcome aboard!"
我握了握他的手，摇摇晃晃地走下楼，经过走廊，来到发动机实验室。我首先看到的东西是一个与我腰部一样高的活塞，垂直地躺在地板中央。我胃里的结又紧了一些。但随后我的 50,000 美元债务的清晰画面就消失得无影无踪了。
I shook his hand and walked downstairs a little unsteadily past the corridor to the engine lab. The first thing I saw, lying vertically in the middle of the floor, was a piston as high as my waist. The knot in my stomach tightened some more. But then a clear picture of my $50,000 debt dissolved into the concrete.
我对自己唱道：
I sang to myself:
我有钱
I got money
我得到了资金
I got funding
我得到了 RA
I got an R.A.
谁还能要求更多吗？
Who could ask for anything more?
章节
C H A P T E R
6
6
决赛
Finals
十二月初，斯蒂芬妮寄来了信。“我以为你是个好人……我以为你是无辜的……我以为你不是一个自我主义者。Evidemmentje m'en Buis trompe。我错了。”
In early December the letter from Stephanie arrived. "I thought you were a nice person.... I thought you were innocent.... I thought you were not an egotist. Evidemmentje m'en Buis trompe. I was wrong."
很高兴看到她处理得这么好。
It's good to see she took it so well.
日子变得越来越短，吉夫托普洛斯的问题却越来越长。往返奥尔斯顿的路上很冷。我的公寓很冷。纪念大道上的发电厂冒出的烟雾更浓、更滚滚，到了晚上，烟雾越来越多地被初冬的风吹到一边。
The days became shorter and shorter, Gyftopoulos's problem sets longer and longer. It was cold on the rides to and from Allston. My apartment was cold. The smoke from the power plant on Memorial Drive was thicker, billowier, and at night it was blown more and more to the side by the early winds of winter.
学期还剩三周。两周的课程，一个周末，周一休息，然后是期末考试。麻省理工学院没有读书时间。技术是积累的；如果您能做完最后一组习题，您就可以参加考试了。
Three weeks left in the term. Two weeks of classes, a weekend, Monday off, and then finals. There is no reading period at MIT. Technology is cumulative; if you can do the last problem set, you're ready to take the exam.
他们会调整日程安排，试图防止冲突，但如果你有三节课，那么有一种有限的可能性，即第一天早上有一场考试，下午有一场考试，第二天早上有一场考试。我的就是：液体、热、热。
They juggle the schedule to try to prevent conflicts, but there is a finite probability that if you have three classes, one exam will fall on the first morning, one that afternoon, and one the second morning. Mine did: Fluids, Thermo, Heat.
我在图书馆的四楼学习，主层楼下，图书馆员的办公室就在那里。房间没有窗户，没有任何干扰。
I studied in the fourth floor of the library, downstairs from the main level, where the librarians' offices were. It was windowless and free of distractions.
对于热传递和传热，我复印了公式和问题解决方案的图片，并将它们钉在索引卡上。他们可能会帮助我识别这些模式。如果没有完全理解，我可以在考试时参考它们。
For Thermo and Heat Transfer, I xeroxed formulas and pictures of problem solutions and stapled them to index cards. They might help me recognize the patterns. Short of full understanding, I could refer to them at exam time.
第一个星期六，艾克·托马斯的福音歌唱团在克雷斯吉礼堂演唱。艾克的办公室位于传热实验室马特办公室的拐角处。他在密歇根州立大学完成了本科学业，我们有时会在罗森诺的课前和课后聊天。音乐会上的少数观众主要由黑人学生及其家人组成。歌声是欢乐的、充满爱的，我感到温暖和宾至如归，仿佛回到了北卡罗来纳州。
The first Saturday, Ike Thomas's Gospel singing group sang in Kresge Auditorium. Ike's office was around the corner from Matt's in the heat transfer lab. He'd done his undergrad work at Michigan State, and we sometimes chatted before and after Rohsenow's class. The small audience at the concert was comprised mostly of black students and their families. The singing was joyous, loving, and I felt warm and at home, as if I were back in North Carolina.
艾克在音乐会上演奏三角钢琴并演唱了《奇异恩典》，他浑厚、铿锵有力的声音与低音和弦产生共鸣，就像荒野中呼喊的声音。
Ike played the concert grand piano and sang "Amazing Grace," his rich, sonorous voice resonating with the bass chords, like a voice crying out in the wilderness.
接下来的一周，艾克和我受邀参加传热研究课程。班上的四个人住在 Ashdown House，这是位于 Mass 大道和 Memorial Drive 拐角处的研究生宿舍。其中一人在马特的办公室里还有一张桌子。事实上，我偶然听说了这个学习会，有点邀请自己，然后问艾克是否愿意参加。
The following week Ike and I were invited to a study session in heat transfer. Four of the guys in the class lived in Ashdown House, the graduate student dorm at the corner of Mass Ave. and Memorial Drive. One of them also had a desk in Matt's office. Actually, I had heard about the study session by accident and sort of invited myself and then asked Ike whether he wanted to come along.
原来，这些家伙从学期开始就每周开一次会，并没有邀请我们任何一个人。正是这样的事情让你知道你的朋友是谁。
It turned out that these guys had been meeting once a week since the beginning of the term and hadn't invited either of us. It's things like this that let you know who your friends are.
我们六个人围坐在其中一间休息室的一张桌子旁。他们四个人很快就完成了本周推荐的不评分作业，足以表明他们整个学期都跟上了班级的节奏。桌首的人在椅子上身体前倾，双脚交叉在椅子下，上脚颤抖得像两个月前在图书馆的亚洲半导体物理学生。
The six of us sat around a table in one of the lounges. The four of them blasted through the week's recommended ungraded assignment quickly, enough to show that they'd all been keeping up with the pace of the class all term. The one at the head of the table leaned forward in his chair, his feet crossed beneath the chair, the upper foot shaking like the Asian semiconductor physics student's in the library two months before.
艾克看起来和我一样沮丧。会议大约一个小时后结束，当我和艾克离开时，我们表示同情。
Ike looked as discouraged as I felt. The session ended after about an hour, and as Ike and I left, we commiserated.
“这些人都会得 A，他们每个人都会得 A，”我说。“这肯定至少会让我在积分榜上重新回到原来的位置。”
"Those guys will have A's, every one of them," I said. "That'll surely push at least me way back in the standings."
“是的，他们似乎确实知道自己在做什么，”他说。“这个地方有时会让我沮丧。但我只是努力记住我小时候来自南卡罗来纳州的奶奶对我说过的话。”
"Yeah, they do seem to know what they're doing," he said. "This place gets me down sometimes. But I just try to keep re membering what my grandma from South Carolina used to say to me when I was little."
我问他她说了什么。
I asked him what she said.
“上帝没有创造任何垃圾。”
"God didn't make no junk."
最后一个周二之前的周六早上，这位为本科论文建造踏板动力船员外壳的大四学生正准备与他的论文导师大卫·戈登·威尔逊教授一起启动它。9点30分，我在办公室研究传热，但当他们问我是否愿意帮忙时，我说愿意。当你开始认为为了考试而学习已经无能为力时，我已经到了放弃的地步。这是饱和、倦怠和一种感觉的结合，如果你现在还不知道，到周二你就不可能知道了。此外，我想，与威尔逊一起获得一些印象分可能会有所帮助。谁知道呢，有一天他可能会给我的考试评分。
The Saturday morning before final Tuesday, the senior who had been building the pedal-powered crew shell for his undergraduate thesis was preparing to launch it with Professor David Gordon Wilson, his thesis adviser. I was in my office at 9:30 studying heat transfer, but when they asked whether I wanted to help I said yes. I was reaching the resignation point, when you begin to think that there's nothing more you can do to study for exams. It's a combination of saturation, burnout, and a feeling that if you don't know it by now there's no way you're going to know it by Tuesday. Besides, I thought, it might help to score some brownie points with Wilson. Who knows, he might be grading a test of mine someday.
“你们为什么不把船开出来，我把车开过来，”威尔逊说。他总是那么潇洒。我们将船员外壳装到了他那辆 70 年代早期的红色大众旅行车的车顶上。这艘船看起来有点滑稽，螺旋桨悬在空中，玻璃纤维支腿浮桥绑在一边，全部颠倒了。
"Why don't you fellows bring the boat out, and I'll bring my car around," Wilson said. He was always so chipper. We loaded the crew shell onto the roof of his early '70s red VW station wagon. The boat looked a little funny with the propellor up in the air and the fiberglass outrigger pontoon strapped to the side, all upside down.
威尔逊穿着他的粗花呢夹克，带着英国口音，我感觉自己就像是早期航空先驱之一，走进试验场，像新闻片中那样快步走着。
With Wilson and his tweed jacket and British accent, I felt like one of the pioneers of early aviation going out to the testing ground, walking fast like on the newsreel.
当我们慢慢地绕过街区前往船库时，威尔逊说：“螺旋桨的设计与保罗·麦克克里迪在薄纱秃鹰上使用的设计相同。它在低流速下非常高效。我们希望这次测试能够成功。”成功了，然后下一个学生就可以将其制作成踏板驱动的水翼艇。我的计算表明，一个人踩踏板水翼艇应该有可能比哈佛大学八桨船走得更快。”
As we slowly drove around the block to the boathouse, Wilson said, "The propellor is based on the same design that Paul Mac- Cready used on the Gossamer Condor. It's very efficient at low flow rates. We can hope that this test will be successful, and then the next student can work on making it into a pedal-powered hydrofoil. My calculations have shown that it should be possible for one person pedaling a hydrofoil to go faster than the Harvard varsity eight-oared shell."
我仔细想想确实有道理。桨手花费大量时间只是将桨恢复到动力冲程。如果您踩船踏板，您始终处于动力冲程。
It did make sense when I thought about it. The oarsmen spend a lot of time just returning their oars to the power stroke. If you pedal the vessel, you're always in the power stroke.
赛季末，查尔斯号上没有船员炮弹，只有一名正在为奥运队训练的女性，结束训练后站在船库的码头上。天气又冷又灰，感觉就像雪一样。
There were no crew shells on the Charles that late in the season, just one woman, who was training for the Olympic team, standing on the dock at the boathouse after she'd finished her workout. It was cold and gray and felt like snow.
威尔逊、我和本科生将浮桥连接到码头上的船员外壳上，船员外壳坐在两个锯木架上，支柱上的螺旋桨通过自行车链条连接到船中间的链轮上。链条穿过贝壳底部一个半美元大小的孔。
Wilson and I and the undergrad attached the pontoon to the crew shell on the dock, with the crew shell sitting on two sawhorses and the propellor on its strut attached by the bicycle chain to the sprocket in the middle of the boat. The chain went through a halfdollar-size hole in the bottom of the shell.
我们将贝壳放入水中并让它静置几秒钟。
We put the shell in the water and let it sit there for a few seconds.
“先生，它似乎进水了，”当棕色的淤泥从链条的孔中流过时，这位本科生说道。
"It appears to be taking on water, sir," the undergrad said as the brown muck flowed through the hole for the chain.
“是的，好吧，水来得没那么快；我们只需要快速进行测试，”威尔逊说。“如果有必要，我们可以在运行之间进行救助。” 上唇僵硬。噗噗。谢里奥。
"Yes, well, the water isn't coming in that fast; we'll just have to do our test runs quickly," Wilson said. "We can bail it out between runs if necessary." Stiff upper lip. Pip pip. Cheerio.
本科生先行。当他坐在船上时，水流得更快了一些。他蹬了几圈，半分钟内就沿着码头移动了 8 英尺。然后链子就掉下来了。
The undergrad went first. When he sat in the boat, the water came in a little faster. He pedaled for several revolutions and in half a minute he moved 8 feet along the dock. Then the chain fell off.
“嗯，这至少是一个概念证明，”威尔逊说。“螺旋桨的设计目的是在船速约 8 英里时提供最大功率，因此我们可能需要考虑如何达到该速度。”
"Well, that at least is a proof of concept," Wilson said. "The propellor is designed to give maximum power at about 8 miles an hour boat speed, so we may need to give some thought as to how to get up to that speed."
我们拿起贝壳把水放出来，轮到威尔逊了，也得到了类似的结果。然后轮到我了。
We picked up the shell to let the water out, and Wilson took his turn, with similar results. Then came my turn.
当我坐进船时，船发出“咔嚓”的声音。我看到两条断裂线从螺旋桨孔的两侧移出，水流入的速度比威尔逊在船上时更快。
"Craaack" went the boat as I sat down in it. I saw the two fracture lines move out from either side of the propellor hole and the water came in faster than it had when Wilson was in the boat.
“也许你现在应该拍张照片，”我说。
"Maybe you should take the picture now," I said.
我对着镜头微笑，踩了四下踏板，移动了几英尺，然后从船座滑回码头。
I smiled for the camera, pedaled four strokes, moved a couple of feet, and slid back over onto the dock from the boat's seat.
当我们把船抬起来时，威尔逊说：“嗯，这就是设计。你知道如何做某事，然后建造它，测试它，然后解决你发现的问题。”
As we lifted the boat out, Wilson said, "Well, that's what design is. You have an idea for how to do something, you build it, you test it, and then you fix the problems that you discover."
那天午夜，即周二考试前的最后一个周六，麻省理工学院交响乐团在 7 号大厅演奏了莫扎特的单簧管协奏曲。我们数百人挤在地板上，寻求安慰，寻求逃避寒冷和孤独的科学研究的庇护。
That midnight, the last Saturday before Tuesday's exams, the MIT symphony played Mozart's clarinet concerto in Lobby 7. Hundreds of us huddled on the floor-huddled masses, seeking comfort, seeking refuge from the cold and lonely study of science.
液体和热能在杜邦健身房。我们是钟形曲线上位置的竞争者，现在不是打篮球，而是解决工作问题。
Fluids and Thermo were in Du Pont Gym. We were competitors for position on the bell curve, now not playing basketball but rather working problems.
液体从 9:00 开始。1 祝卡洛斯、马特和玛丽好运，当夏皮罗通过扬声器说“你可以开始了”时，我把打印的数据包交给了他。他的声音在拱形飞机库形状的房间里回响。这是自行车比赛的最后一公里。
Fluids started at 9:00. 1 wished Carlos and Matt and Mary good luck and turned over the typed packet when Shapiro said, "You may begin," over the loudspeaker. His voice echoed through the vaulted aircraft-hangar-shaped room. It was the last kilometer of the bicycle race.
杰马耶尔和夏皮罗将小册子分发给两点二十五分和两点二十分，我们右边的本科流体班。杰马耶勒对夏皮罗说：“我们最好不要混淆任何测试。”
Gemayel and Shapiro handed out the booklets to two twenty five and to two twenty, the undergraduate Fluids class to our right. Gemayel said to Shapiro, "We better not get any of the tests mixed UP."
夏皮罗苦笑道：“这对结果没有任何影响。”
Shapiro answered wryly, "It wouldn't make any difference to the results."
我翻开打印的试卷，上面又写着“打开书本……打开笔记”。他们不会费心让你记住这里的东西。相反，他们让你使用任何你能携带的东西，让问题变得不可能。
I turned over the typed exam that said again at the top "Open book ... open notes." They don't bother to make you memorize things here. Instead they let you use anything you can carry and make the problems impossible anyway.
像往常一样，我仔细检查了考试，寻找一些看起来可行的东西。令人惊讶的是，夏皮罗在前面放了一些礼物点。这些只是一般信息问题，我可以在整齐地抄写的笔记中查找的内容，或者我独立于解决测试问题的能力而掌握的一般概念。在第一个小时内，我就落后了三分之一的分数。
As usual, I looked through the exam for something that looked doable. Surprisingly, Shapiro had put some gift points up front. These were just general information questions, things I could look up in my neatly copied notes, or the general concepts that I had mastered independently of my ability to solve test problems. Within the first hour I had a good third of the points down.
我感觉有点兴奋——明亮的灯光照在白纸上，新削尖的二号铅笔在纸上留下了有序的印记。称之为考生的高潮，就像在自行车比赛中，背包带着你比你以前跑得更快。房间里有一种专注的精神氛围，周围有 300 个非常聪明的人，安静、快速地思考，没有随意的想法。您进行推理，查看您所做的绘图，写下公式，并聆听您需要的想法。
I felt a little high-the bright lights shining down on the white paper as the freshly sharpened number two pencil makes its ordered impressions on the page. Call it test-taker's high, like in a bicycle race when the pack is carrying you along faster than you've ever gone before. There's a focused mental atmosphere in the room, 300 very bright people around you, thinking quietly, quickly, with no random thoughts. You reason, look at the drawings you've made, write the formulas down, and listen for the ideas you need.
十点十分，史密斯教授向参加本科 Thermo 期末考试的学生宣布：“第 3b 题有一个拼写错误。” 他的声音在机库里回荡。“应该是每克12卡路里，而不是每克120卡路里。” 显然，一个走上前来与史密斯交谈的人发现了这个错误。
At ten after ten, Professor Smith had an announcement for the students taking the undergraduate Thermo final: "There's a typo on Problem 3b." His voice echoed up and down the hangar. "It should be 12 calories per gram, not 120 calories per gram." Evidently a guy who'd walked up to talk to Smith had spotted the error.
我想，他们为什么不在考试前校对一下考试呢？
Why don't they proofread the tests before they give them out, I thought.
问题部分占 100 分中的 60 分，涉及我在前两次考试中看到的相同轴。这次，为了增加第三个难度，杆子正在旋转：
The problem section, worth 60 of the 100 points, involved the same shaft I'd seen on the previous two exams. This time, to add a third degree of difficulty, the rod was spinning:
“(a) 求出轴与轴套之间的油流可视为粘性时的最大旋转速度。（30 分） (b) 求当转速达到 3,600 rpm 时轴上的升力。(30点）”
"(a) Find the maximum speed of rotation at which the oil flow between the shaft and the sleeve can be considered viscous. (30 points) (b) Find the lifting force on the shaft as the rotation speed reaches 3,600 rpm. (30 points)"
对于考生来说就这么多了。
So much for test-taker's high.
我在剩下的考试时间里给学院做了尝试，估计我的总分会在 70 左右。是时候希望平均分很低了。
I gave it the institute try for the rest of the exam period and figured my total would be around 70. Time to hope that the average was low.
热力有点难。不过，我确实感觉自己学到了一些东西。正如吉夫托普洛斯所强调的那样，我知道如何实现“能量平衡和熵平衡”。我知道如何绘制矩形和进出矩形的箭头来象征进出矩形的热量或机械能。剩下的就是数字运算的细节。
Thermo was a little harder. It did feel like I'd learned something, though. I knew how to do an "ennergy balance and an ennntropy balance," as Gyftopoulos had emphasized. I knew how to draw rectangles and arrows going in and out of them to symbolize the heat or mechanical energy going into or out of the rectangle. The rest was number-crunching detail.
当我们参加考试时，吉夫托普洛斯在体育馆里走来走去。他在每张桌子前停下来，简单地看了我们每个人的情况。这是他表达关心的方式，但这令人不安。当他来到我的桌子旁时，他轻轻地将一只手放在我的肩膀上，另一只手放在桌子上，然后倾身查看我在白纸上的第二个铅笔印记。
Gyftopoulos walked around the gymnasium as we took the test. He stopped at each table and briefly looked at how each of us was doing. It was his way of showing he cared, but it was unnerving. When he came to my table he gently put one hand on my shoulder, one on the table, and leaned over to look at my number two pencil impressions on the white page.
“嗯嗯，”他看着我写字，赞许地说。
"Umhmmmm," he said approvingly as he watched me write.
这比“啧啧”好听，但我真的很想转向他说：“Eeeeyesss？我可以帮你吗？”
It was better than "Tsk Tsk," but I really wanted to turn to him and say, "Eeeeyesss? May I help you?"
不过，你不能和这些人开玩笑；当然，在他们对边界成绩做出所有判断之前，他们肯定不会这样做。
You don't joke around with these guys, though; certainly not before they've made all their judgment calls for the borderline grades.
第二天，从我翻出罗森诺决赛的那一刻起，我就知道这是第四码，而且码数很长。幸好我帮助威尔逊和他的本科论文学生驾驶那艘愚蠢的船。一半的测试涉及确定辐射热通量的电阻方法。罗森诺在最近两场讲座中谈到了这一点。
The next day, from the moment I turned over Rohsenow's final, I knew it was fourth and long yardage. It had been just as well that I'd helped Wilson and his undergraduate thesis student with that stupid boat. Fully half the test dealt with the resistance method of determining amounts of radiation heat flux. Rohsenow had touched on this during the last two lectures.
这个想法是，你可以将热表面视为电池。温度越高，电池的电压就越高。不同的物体会吸收不同比例的热量，具体取决于物体的距离、大小以及面对热表面的方式。您将所有这些信息放入有效电阻中，然后可以求解各种热表面温度的方程组。
The idea is that you think of the hot surfaces as if they're batteries. The higher the temperature, the higher the voltage of the battery. Different fractions of the heat are absorbed by different objects, depending on how far away they are, how big they are, and how they face the hot surface. You put all that information into an effective electrical resistance, and then you can solve the set of equations for various hot surface temperatures.
啊哈。这就是他们所说的建模的意思。你对现象提出方程并改变参数。一般来说，你会抛出你知道如何从其他地方求解的方程，就像辐射的电气模拟模型一样。不幸的是，我从未掌握过电学方程。我对它们的了解足以在大二物理考试中重复问题，但不足以在期末考试前四天将这些知识转移到另一个领域，当时我还有另外两场考试要担心。
Aha. That's what they mean by modeling. You throw equa tions at the phenomenon and vary parameters. Generally, you throw equations that you know how to solve from somewhere else, as with the electrical analog model for radiation. Unfortunately, I had never mastered the electrical equations. I knew enough of them to parrot problems in sophomore physics exams, but not enough to transfer that knowledge to another field in the four days before the final when I had two other exams to worry about.
我花了三个小时在另外两道题上争取部分学分。看着小教室里的其他人学习得如此之快，真是令人沮丧。辐射问题，如果你知道如何设置的话，一定有很多很多步骤。
I spent three hours scraping for partial credit points on the other two problems. It was discouraging to watch the other guys in the small classroom working so fast. The radiation questions, if you knew how to set them up, must have had many, many steps.
平安夜的前一天，我从伯莱塔开始评估损失。如果有坏消息，我不想再冒与吉夫托普洛斯的另一场戏的风险。
The day before Christmas Eve I assessed the damage, starting with Beretta. If there was bad news, I didn't want to risk another scene with Gyftopoulos.
“和班上其他人相比，你的期末成绩确实很低。”他故意说道。“有的人做得非常非常好，有的人做得很差。这次我们甚至不得不给一些D和F……我们商量了一下，决定给你C。”
"Your final score was really quite low in comparison with the rest of the class," he said deliberately. "Some people did very very well, and some did poorly. We even had to give some D's and F's this time.... We talked it over and decided to give you a C."
“有多少人完成了课程？”
"How many people finished the class?"
“45。”
"Forty-five."
我记得第一堂课时马特的算法计数为 76。钟形曲线的下三分之一，也就是让我处于中间的那条曲线，在第一次期中考试后就下降了，让我只能抓着队伍的后部，就像抓着正在驶去的火车车厢后部的栏杆一样。
I remembered Matt's algorithmic count of 76 at the first lecture. The lower third of the bell curve, the one that would have put me in the middle, had dropped after the first midterm, leaving me grasping at the back of the pack as one grasping for a railing on the back of a receding train car.
我下楼来到罗森诺的办公室。那里的消息肯定会更好。毕竟，杰米是评分员，而且我们是同一个校内曲棍球队的成员。
I went downstairs to Rohsenow's office. The news would surely be better there. Jamie was the grader, after all, and we were on the same intramural hockey team.
我坐在了熟悉的座位上。罗森诺从测试中拿出了曲线表。这是一个直方图，水平轴上有最终分数，垂直延伸的小x表示不同范围内的人数，就像他在第一次测验后在黑板上画的那样。该图表上有两个驼峰，一个以 90% 为中心，另一个以 75% 为中心。这两个驼峰的左侧是 60 处的两个单独的小 x。
I sat in the seat that was becoming familiar. Rohsenow pulled out the curve sheet from the test. It was a histogram, a graph with the final scores on the horizontal axis and little x's for the number of people in the different ranges extending vertically, like the one he'd drawn on the blackboard after the first quiz. The graph had two humps on it, one centered on 90 percent and another centered on 75. To the left of the two humps were two lone little x's at 60.
罗森诺解释了该图。“这是分数，看吧。现在杰米和我坐下来，我们看着图表，我们说，嗯，那个驼峰看起来像 A，那个驼峰看起来像 B。” 他指着90驼峰和75驼峰。“然后我们看着这两个小x，我们说，好吧，我们可以称它们为B，但它们实际上看起来更像C。你就是其中之一。”
Rohsenow explained the graph. "Here are the scores, see. Now Jamie and I sat down and we looked at the graph and we said, well, that hump looks like an A, and that hump looks like a B." He pointed to the 90 hump and the 75 hump. "Then we looked at these two little x's, and we said, well, we could call these a B, but they really look more like a C. You're one of those."
我想，这对杰米有好处。通过在同一个校内团队中打球来兜售影响力对麻省理工学院没有任何好处。从某种程度上来说，C 感觉很好。这是一个诚实的 C。我想知道另一个是谁。
Good for Jamie, I thought. Influence peddling by playing on the same intramural team doesn't do any good at MIT. In a way, the C felt good. It was an honest C. I wondered who was the other one.
“呃，这可能是个问题，先生，”我说。“我刚刚和 Beretta 教授谈过，他说我在 Thermo 中也得到了 C。我不知道我在 Fluids 中的表现如何，但我怀疑它是否是 A。”
"Uh, this could be a problem, sir," I said. "I just talked to Professor Beretta, and he said that I got a C in Thermo, too. I don't know how I did in Fluids, but I doubt it was an A."
“如果你在我的课程中获得 C，在 Thermo 中获得 C，那么趋势表明你在流体中也可能获得 C。主题是相似的，”他说。
"If you have a C in my class and a C in Thermo, the trend would indicate you'll probably have a C in Fluids, too. The subject matter's similar," he said.
对这个家伙来说，一切都是趋势——在图表上点，点之间有一条线。
Everything's a trend to this guy-points on a graph with a line in between them.
我问：“3C 对我在麻省理工学院的未来意味着什么？”
I asked, "What would 3 C's mean for my future at MIT?"
“好吧，”他回答道，“你必须达到 3.5 分才能从这里获得学位。这意味着你必须至少获得与 C 一样多的 B。因此，如果你的平均分低于 3.5，我们就会对你进行缓刑。 。如果连续两个学期成绩低于 3.5，我们就开始玩数字游戏。我们会尝试弄清楚，在你完成所有课程作业时，从数学上来说是否有可能将自己从困境中挖出来。如果看起来就像一个渺茫的机会，好吧，我们向你指出这一点，我们希望你通过辞职来防止事情变得丑陋。”
"Well," he answered, "you have to have a 3.5 to get a degree from here. That means you have to have at least as many B's as C's. So if your average ever goes below a 3.5, we put you on probation. If it goes under 3.5 for two terms in a row, we start playing a numbers game. We try to figure out whether it's mathematically possible for you to dig yourself out of the hole by the time you complete all your coursework. If it looks like a long shot, well, we point that out to you and we hope you prevent things from getting ugly by resigning."
这一切对他来说都是那么理所当然。当你处于每条钟形曲线的右侧时，即使他们已经撇了又撇，直到只剩下特别浓郁的奶油，你很容易就事论事。
It was all so matter-of-fact to him. It's easy to be matter-offact when you've been on the right side of every bell curve, even after they've skimmed and skimmed until there's nothing but extra-rich cream left.
“这在短期内意味着什么？” 我问。
"What does this mean in the short term?" I asked.
“首先，你会收到院长的一封信，”他说。“他会告诉你，你正在缓刑，你应该来跟我谈谈。”
"First of all, you'll get a letter from the dean," he said. "He'll tell you that you're on probation, and that you should come and talk to me."
缓刑。我可以找缓刑官吗？
Probation. Do I get a probation officer?
罗森诺继续说道：“但你现在正在跟我说话，所以你可以忽略这一点。下学期就试着拿几个 B 吧。”
Rohsenow continued, "But you're talking to me now, so you can ignore that. Just try to get a couple of B's next term."
这个消息并没有像它可能那样让我震惊。毕竟，总是有商学院的。我走向 31 号楼附近我锁自行车的地方，撞到了杰马耶勒。
The news didn't shake me up as much as it might have. There was, after all, always business school. I walked toward where I'd locked my bike near Building 31 and bumped into Gemayel.
“那么，我在液体方面做得怎么样？” 我问。
"So, how'd I do in Fluids?" I asked.
“嗯，我们真的不应该在假期结束后告诉你，”他说。
"Well, we're really not supposed to tell you until after the holidays," he said.
正确的。在他们打开圣诞礼物并在家吃饱之前，不要告诉他们他们是失败的。该政策的设计必须保持高层建筑附近的人行道清洁。
Right. Don't tell them they're failures until they've opened up their Christmas presents and been well fed at home. The policy must be designed to keep the sidewalks near the tall buildings clean.
“哦，来吧。你可以告诉我，”我坚持道。“至少给我一个提示吧。”
"Aw, come on. You can tell me," I persisted. "At least give me a hint."
“呃，”他犹豫了一下，“你做得很好。”
"Ehh," he hesitated, "you did okay."
我做的还好 这意味着 B。
I did okay. That meant a B.
章节
C H A P T E R
7
7
公会
The Guild
1982 年 1 月 2 日
January 2, 1982
7:30 当我敲响 Frank West 的门时，他已经在喝第二杯咖啡了。这是我的 RA 的第一天。对于 RA，你每个学期要上两到三门课，每周在实验室或计算机上工作大约 30 个小时。作为交换，你可以获得免费学费和每月约 600 美元的津贴。研究工作最终会成为你的硕士或博士学位。论文，所以 RA 一石二鸟。
7:30 A.m. Frank West was already on his second cup of coffee when I knocked on his door. It was the first day of my R.A. With an R.A., you take two or three classes per term and work about 30 hours a week in the lab or on a computer. In exchange, you receive free tuition and a stipend of about $600 each month. And the research work ends up in your master's or Ph.D. thesis, so an R.A. kills two birds with one stone.
“我在这里，”我热情地说。“你想要我做什么？”
"Here I am," I said enthusiastically. "What do you want me to do?"
“你的工作是提高快速压缩机的压缩比，从现在开始我们将其称为 RCM。你需要重新设计它，对涡流速率和湍流水平的测试矩阵进行实验，并研究参数对点火延迟的影响。”他轻快地回答道。
"Your job is to raise the compression ratio of the rapid compression machine, which from now on we'll call the RCM. You'll need to redesign it, conduct experiments over a test matrix of swirl rates and turbulence levels, and investigate parametric influences on ignition delay," he answered briskly.
咕噜咕噜。这家伙应该有一个术语表。
Gulp. This guy should come with a glossary.
韦斯特继续说道，“如果你愿意的话，你可以坐下来。我知道这是一项艰巨的工作。我们希望在二月份得到结果，及时赶上研究赞助商的会议。你需要设计设备；尼克·维托罗将为你工作。我希望你让他忙起来。”
West continued, "You can sit down if you want. I know it's a big job. We want to get results in February, in time for the meeting of the research sponsors. You'll need to design the equipment; Nick Vittoro will be working for you. I want you to keep him busy."
当然。当我不知道自己在做什么时，我怎么能让别人忙呢？我一生中从未设计过任何东西。
Sure. How can I keep anybody else busy when I don't know what I'm doing. I've never designed anything in my life.
“嗯嗯，”我说。
"Uh huh," I said.
“哦，还有关于实验室规则，”他补充道。“第一条规则是‘这是你的工作，不是我的。’” 第二个是“我不找任何借口”，第三个是“实验室时间为 7:30 至 5:30，其中午餐时间为半小时。” 你应该能够在这些时间里完成所有的实验室工作。哈佛物理系去年失去了一名学生，当时他在凌晨 2:00 进入实验的高压电源中睡着了。第二天他被发现死亡……我们不希望斯隆实验室发生这种事情。
"Oh, and about lab rules," he added. "The first rule is 'It's your job and not mine.' The second is 'I don't take any excuses,' and the third is 'Lab hours are 7:30 to 5:30, with half an hour for lunch.' You should be able to get all your lab work done between those hours. Harvard's Physics Department lost a student last year when he fell asleep into his experiment's high-voltage power supply at 2:00 in the morning. He was found dead the next day. We don't want that kind of thing to happen here in the Sloan Lab.'
我也不。“嗯。”
Me neither. "Uh huh."
“你可以在晚上做电脑工作，阅读期刊文章。并尝试晚饭后游泳半小时左右。我发现这段时间锻炼可以让我需要更少的睡眠并唤醒我，这样我就可以再工作了四五个小时。下楼吧——我带你看看你的牢房。”
"You can do computer work at night and read journal articles. And try taking a swim after dinner for half an hour or so. I've found that exercising at that time makes me need less sleep and wakes me up so I can work another four or five hours. Come on downstairs-I'll show you your cell."
听起来很有限。这是可能没有结局的事情的开始。马特告诉我，大多数研究生想到的就是让他们的导师批准他们的论文。真正的论文。不是你在春假期间写的商学院四十页的“重要论文”，而是一年到两年的努力——如果一切顺利的话——而韦斯特似乎会在签约之前从我身上挤出尽可能多的工作。 。
It sounded so confining. It was the start of what might not have an ending. Matt had told me that all most graduate students think about is getting their advisers to approve their theses. Real theses. Not a business school forty-page "major paper" that you write over spring break, but a year to two year's effort-if all went well-and West seemed like he'd squeeze as much work out of me as he could before signing.
经过门口的活塞，实验室看起来就像一个小工厂，有车床、钻床、焊接站，最上面还有一台在轨道上运行的桥式起重机，用于移动非常重的物体。测试单元是主商店周边的小房间。每个房间都装有用于一项实验的设备。这就像一部黑帮电影中监狱车间的场景，其中一个黑帮试图将发动机组扔到另一个黑帮身上。我什至有一个自己的牢房。
Past the piston at the door the lab looked like a small factory, with lathes, drill presses, a welding station, and over it all, an overhead crane that ran on tracks to move the really heavy objects. The test cells were small rooms around the perimeter of the main shop. Each housed the equipment for one experiment. It was like a prison workshop scene in a gangster movie, where one gangster tries to drop the engine block on the other one. I even had a cell of my own.
不过，这种磨难是值得的。我的数学一直很好，但当涉及到机械方面时，我就没那么有天赋了。高中时，我试图在我的迷你自行车上重建发动机，因为我让油太低而结冰了，但那个项目最终以我把迷你自行车带到割草机店结束。我在六年级时制作的模型火箭上升了 6 英寸，向右转向，然后坠毁。我的车库总是一片混乱，完全不像《大众机械》中的车库，所有的工具都整齐地放在钉板上。
The ordeal would be worth it, though. I'd always been good in math, but when it came to mechanical things I was less than gifted. In high school I tried to rebuild the engine on my minibike after it froze when I let the oil get too low, but that project ended in my taking the minibike to the lawnmower shop. The model rocket I built in sixth grade went up 6 inches, veered to the right, and crashed. And my garage was always a mess, nothing like the ones featured in Popular Mechanics, where all the tools are neatly placed on pegboards.
不过，我可以把自行车放在路上，这对韦斯特来说就足够了。
I could keep my bicycle on the road, though, and that was enough for West.
他打开了牢房的一扇战舰灰色钢制双门，在离开之前说道：“就是这里。玩得开心！”
He opened one of the battleship-gray steel double doors to the cell and before he left said, "Here it is. Have fun!"
谢谢。这台机器是一堆灰色和棕色的金属罐、螺栓、管子、管道、电线、开关。我不知道从哪里开始。
Thanks. The machine was a mass of gray and brown metala tank, bolts, tubes, pipes, wires, switches. I had no idea where to start.
有人打开了机械车间中央架子上的收音机。这首歌是格伦·米勒的《In the Mood》。
Somebody turned on the radio on the shelf in the center of the machine shop. The song was Glenn Miller's "In the Mood."
我看着灰色水箱上那张泛黄、破碎的纸，上面贴着老化的胶带。上面写着“快速压缩机。所有系统运行：1972 年 5 月 15 日。” 当我进入青春期时，这台机器已经生锈了，现在我有两个月的时间让它恢复生机。
I looked at the yellowing, crumbling piece of paper attached with aged masking tape to the gray tank. It read "Rapid compression machine. All systems operational: May 15, 1972." The machine had been rusting while I'd been going through puberty, and now I had two months to bring it back to life.
“我们得打个招呼，队长，”那个棒球帽边上白发的男人一边说，一边打开了我牢房的第二扇双门。他穿着一件蓝色工作衫，扣子一直扣到翻领处，穿着蓝色实验室夹克和蓝色牛仔裤，脚上穿着可能是钢头工作靴。他比我矮一点，拖着脚步走进了我的牢房。“我是尼克·维托罗。你叫什么名字？”
"We gotta get some eh in hih, Cap'n," the man with gray hair around the edge of his baseball cap said as he opened the second double door to my cell. He wore a blue workshirt buttoned all the way up to the turned-up collar, a blue lab jacket and blue jeans, and work boots that were probably steel-toed. He was a little shorter than I and kind of shuffled into my cell. "I'm Nick Vittoro. What's your name?"
“胡椒白。”
"Pepper White."
“哦，是的，你是新学徒。我记得韦斯特教授提到过圣诞节后你会来的事情。我告诉你一件事，船长，我们会在这项工作上吸一些风。”
"Oh yeah, you're the new apprentice. I remember Professor West mentioning something about you coming along after Christmas. I tell you one thing, Cap'n, we're gonna be suckin' some wind on this job."
我喜欢他说我们的方式。“对于从哪里开始有什么建议吗？” 我问他（过去式。
I liked the way he said we. "Got any suggestions on where to start?" I asked him.
“Showah。拿走吧。让你们接触到那台旧式快速压缩机的灵魂。让我们把 A 形起重机搬到这里，我们会把它的前端拆下来。我们得让它知道谁是老大。”
"Showah. Take it apaht. Get yuh hands on the soul of that old rapid compression machine. Let's bring the A-frame hoist in here and we'll take the front end off it. We gotta let it know who's boss."
项目开始不到一个小时，我就已经学会了重工业中最基本的概念之一：索具，或者移动大型重物，而不会让它们落在你的脚上或弄伤你的背部，或者有时两者兼而有之。这一定就是他们称之为重工业的原因。
Not even an hour into the project and I was already learning one of the most basic concepts in heavy industry: rigging, or moving big heavy objects around without dropping them on your foot or wrecking your back or sometimes doing both. That must be why they call it heavy industry.
“记住，船长，”尼克说，“如果你遵守法律，你就会得到很多的帮助。”
"And remembah, Cap'n," Nick said, "you'll get there a lot fastuh and safuh if you keep the Lawd as yah pahtnah."
我们从我牢房对面的铁丝网后面的备件区取出了 A 型起重机。格伦·米勒停止了演奏，播音员说：“你生命中的音乐。” 音乐增添了实验室的古色古香的感觉。我们都知道发动机可以工作，那么还需要了解它们什么呢？最热门的东西就在附近的电子实验室里。这就是技术高但不成熟的地方。但是，如果没有真正可以制造或控制的东西，电子产品有什么用呢？如快速压缩机。
We took the A-frame hoist from the spare parts area behind the chain-link fence across from my cell. Glenn Miller stopped playing, and the announcer said, "The music of your life." The music added to the lab's archaic feeling. We all know that engines work, so what's left to find out about them? The hot stuff was in the electronics labs around the comer. That's where the technology is high and not mature. But what good is electronics without something real to make or control? Such as a rapid compression machine.
真正的汽车或卡车中的真正的四冲程柴油发动机的活塞在每个发动机循环中上下移动两次。活塞在气缸中向上或向下的每次单向行程称为一次冲程。图中活塞位于气缸顶部。
A real four-stroke diesel engine in a real car or truck has a piston that moves up and down two times per engine cycle. Each one-way trip the piston makes up or down the cylinder is called a stroke. Figure the piston is at the top of the cylinder.
此时气缸的容积非常小，当活塞向下移动时，阀门（称为进气阀）打开，让空气进入。这称为进气冲程（气缸吸入空气）。当活塞接近进气冲程底部时，进气门关闭，活塞向上移动并压缩被关闭的阀门困在气缸中的空气。这就是压缩冲程。“压缩比”是压缩冲程开始时活塞和气缸所围成的体积除以压缩冲程结束时的相同体积。
The volume of the cylinder is very small at that point, and a valve (called the intake valve) opens to let air in as the piston moves down. This is called the intake stroke (the cylinder takes in air). When the piston is near the bottom of the intake stroke, the intake valve closes and the piston moves up and compresses the air that's trapped in the cylinder by the closed valve. This is the compression stroke. The "compression ratio" is the volume bounded by the piston and the cylinder at the beginning of the compression stroke, divided by the same volume at the end of the compression stroke.
当活塞接近压缩冲程末端时，喷油器将柴油喷射到气缸中。燃料蒸发并燃烧，燃烧燃料产生的热量进一步提高压力并向下推动活塞。这就是动力冲程。
When the piston is near the end of the compression stroke, the fuel injector squirts diesel fuel into the cylinder. The fuel evaporates and burns, and the heat generated by the burning fuel raises the pressure even more and pushes the piston down. This is the power stroke.
一旦活塞触底，排气门打开，活塞将燃烧的燃料从气缸中推出到尾管。这就是排气冲程。
Once the piston bottoms out, the exhaust valve opens and the piston pushes the burned fuel out of the cylinder to the tailpipe. This is the exhaust stroke.
然后进气门打开，循环重复进行。我从九年级时从百科全书中解释的科学报告中记住了这些。
Then the intake valve opens and the cycle repeats itself. That much I remembered from the science report I paraphrased from the encyclopaedia in ninth grade.
快速压缩机将模拟循环的压缩和燃烧部分。
The rapid compression machine would simulate the compression and combustion parts of the cycle.
在使用 A 形框架之前，我在全新的实验室笔记本上画了一个草图，以记录我们如何装配它。如果出现问题，我们可以参考草图来分析发生了什么。如果我们的工作成功，这个草图可能会对后代的 RCM 学生有所帮助。
Before using the A-frame, I made a sketch in my brand-new lab notebook to record how we rigged it. If anything went wrong, we could refer to the sketch to analyze what happened. If our work was successful, the sketch might be helpful for future generations of RCM students.
尼克同意我的安排，我们就开始工作了。A 形框架就位，链条坠子缠绕在气缸上，他说：“好的，船长。从我的工具箱里拿出一把扳手，松开螺栓。我会稳定链条坠子。”
Nick agreed with my setup and we went to work. The A-frame in place and the chain fall wrapped around the cylinder, he said, "OK, Cap'n. Go get a wrench outa my tool box and undo the bolts. I'll hold the chain fall steady."
由于用力拉扯和一些体重，螺栓松动了。尼克在最后一根链条松开之前收紧了链条。
The bolts loosened with hard tugs and some body weight. Nick tightened the chain just before the last one loosened.
“前气缸中有一个活塞，我们必须将气缸拉开，”尼克说。“来，用这把螺丝刀启动气缸。”
"There's a piston in the front cylinder that we gotta pull the cylinder offa," Nick said. "Here, use this screwdriver to get the cylinder started."
我将螺丝刀插入两个法兰之间，然后将它们松开。当气缸向前移动时，镀铬轴一次出现约四分之一英寸。尼克和我慢慢地将气缸从机器的其余部分移开。
I wedged the screwdriver between the two flanges and eased them apart. As the cylinder moved forward a chrome shaft appeared about a quarter of an inch at a time. Nick and I slowly worked the cylinder away from the rest of the machine.
尼克在两英尺外说道，“放轻松，船长，我们只剩下几英寸了。我们现在不想弯曲那根轴。如果我必须制作一根新轴，那会减慢速度。”
Two feet out, Nick said, "Easy now, Cap'n, we got just a couple more inches. We don't wanna bend that shaft now. It'd slow things up for me to have to make a new one."
我们轻轻地、慢慢地将气缸从活塞上松开，使轴毫发无伤。“让我们把这个东西搬到工作台上，”他说，然后我们沿着工作台对面的 A 形框架和圆柱体行走。
Gently, slowly we freed the cylinder from the piston, leaving the shaft unscathed. "Let's bring this thing onto the workbench," he said, and we walked the A-frame and the cylinder opposite the bench.
“你握住它，船长，我把她举起来，”尼克说着，将链子的自由端一次拉起一两英尺。几分钟之内，他就将圆筒举到了长凳的高度；然后我们跨坐在带有 A 形框架的长凳上并放下气缸。
"You hold it, Cap'n, while I hoist her up," Nick said, pulling the free end of the chain up a foot or two at a time. Within a few minutes, he had lifted the cylinder to the level of the bench; then we straddled the bench with the A-frame and lowered the cylinder.
“那东西怎么样？” 我指着起重机问道。
"How's that thing work?" I asked Nick, pointing to the hoist.
“这就是滑轮原理，”他说。“这有点像yah里有很多滑轮。我拉动滑轮的一端，我试图举起的东西就变成了fah的一半。亚里士多德不是说过，如果他有足够的滑轮，他就可以移动世界？”
"It's just the pulley principle," he said. "It's sorta like theyah's a lot of pulleys in theyah. I pull on one end of the pulley and the thing I'm trying to lift goes half as fah. Wasn't it Aristotle who said that if he had enough pulleys he could move the world?"
我想知道尼克的事实是否正确。不过，总体想法听起来似乎是合理的。“不过，我认为这一切都是从工业革命开始的。”
I wondered whether Nick had his facts straight. The general idea sounded plausible, though. "I thought that stuff all started with the industrial revolution, though."
“不，船长，这种事情已经存在了一段时间了。你认为他们在中世纪是如何建造所有这些大教堂的？他们肯定没有把所有这些岩石搬到山顶，”他回答道。
"No, Cap'n, this kind of thing's been around for a while. How do you think they built all those cathedrals in the Middle Ages? They sure didn't carry all those rocks to the top," he answered.
他说得有道理。滑轮和杠杆已经存在了四、五千年了。它们和轮子一起，是利用自然法则通过缩短距离来放大力量的第一步。
He had a point. The pulley and the lever had been around for four, maybe five thousand years. They were the first steps, along with the wheel, in using the laws of nature to magnify force by shrinking distance.
“好吧，现在就够了，船长。我的面包卷到了。你想从咖啡店买点什么吗？”
"Well, that's enough for now, Cap'n. Time for my roll. You want anything from the coffee shop?"
“不用了，谢谢，尼克。我想我会留在这里，试着弄清楚这些碎片的用途。”
"No thanks, Nick. I think I'll stay here and try to figure out what these pieces do."
“好吧，”他说。“比如说，佩帕，我曾经教过机械加工课程。如果我们每天花一些时间复习基础知识，可能会帮助你脚踏实地。”
"Okeedokay," he said. "Say, Peppah, I used to teach a machining class. It might help you get your feet on the ground if we spend some time each day going over the basics."
“谢谢。我可能会接受你的建议。” 独行侠有托托；我有尼克。
"Thanks. I might take you up on that." The Lone Ranger had Tonto; I had Nick.
尼克走到外面，隔壁莱特兄弟风洞中传来的噪音听起来就像一个中队的 B-17 轰炸机正前往轰炸杜塞尔多夫。广播里播放着“除了我，不要和其他人一起坐在苹果树下”。我一半期待听到战争债券的广告。
Nick went outside and the noise from the Wright Brothers' wind tunnel next door sounded like a squadron of B-17's on their way to bomb Dusseldorf. The radio played "Don't Sit under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else but Me." I half expected to hear an ad for war bonds.
如果你不知道自己在做什么，首先要做的就是努力让自己看起来知道自己在做什么。这可以为你赢得时间。于是我开始清理牢房。我从水箱中取出泛黄的纸，并用尼克的螺丝刀刮掉旧的胶带。我清除了可用的长凳空间中的所有旧垃圾。然后我把实验室里的物品一一列出来，整齐地放在两个工作台之一上。有些设备在要么重生为丰田汽车，要么回到某处垃圾填埋场的铁矿石中之前，永远不会再有其他用途。其他人可能会适应新的实验；如果可以挽救的话，它们可能会节省数天、数周的时间。
If you don't know what you're doing, the first thing to do is to try to look like you know what you're doing. That buys you time. And so I started cleaning up the cell. I removed the yellowed sheet of paper from the tank and scraped the old masking tape away with Nick's screwdriver. I cleared all the old pieces of junk off the available bench space. Then I made a list of the items in the lab as one by one I put them neatly on one of the two workbenches. Some of the devices would never have another use before they either were reborn as a Toyota or went back to iron ore in a landfill somewhere. Others might be adaptable to the new experiment; salvageable, they might save days, weeks of time.
我发现了一件旧的蓝色实验室夹克，名字贴上写着“Don”。我把它穿上了。在其中一个长凳下，我发现了一堆韦斯特论文的旧笔记。他们杂乱无章，这让我感觉好一点，因为我知道，尽管他表面秩序井然，但他的生活中至少曾经出现过一些混乱。
I found an old blue lab jacket with "Don" on the name patch. I put it on. Under one of the benches I found an old pile of notes from West's thesis. They were disorganized and it made me feel a little better to know that for all his surface order there had been at least some chaos in his life at one time.
所有金属都安装在 6 英寸厚的钢垫上，钢垫上有从一端延伸到另一端的槽。这些槽提供了一个用螺栓固定所有重物的地方。我开始清理插槽中的小金属碎片，但这太难了，而且可能浪费时间，所以我只是掸掉垫子顶部的灰尘。我高中的“车间”老师是一名钢铁工人，如果他还活着的话，他可能会给我一些建议。
All the metal was mounted on a 6-inch-thick steel pad with slots running from one end to the other. The slots furnished a place to bolt down all the heavy stuff. I started to clean the little bits of metal out of the slots, but that was too hard and probably a waste of time so I just dusted off the top of the pad. My high school's "shop" teacher, an iron worker, might have had some tips for me if he were still alive.
五点三十分很快就到了。尼克和我用硼砂洗了手，他摘下棒球帽，露出了一个完全光秃秃的脑袋，除了边缘是灰色的。
Five-thirty came quickly. Nick and I washed our hands with Boraxo and he took off the baseball cap, showing a completely bald head except for the gray around the edges.
“明天见，船长，”他说。“保持新鲜感并准备好学习如何进行机械加工。”
"See you tomorrow, Cap'n," he said. "Be fresh and ready to learn how to machine."
“好的，尼克。祝你玩得愉快。”
"Will do, Nick. Have a good one."
晚上 7:45 游泳之后——这确实让我醒了——我在更衣室里看到了 Frederick Weare，那个没有资助我的碎石工。
7:45 P.M. After my swim-it did wake me up-I saw Frederick Weare, the rock crusher who didn't fund me, in the locker room.
“你找到资金了吗？” 他问。
"Have you found funding yet?" he asked.
“是的，事实上。我正在斯隆汽车实验室研究快速压缩机。”
"Yes, as a matter of fact. I'm working on the Rapid Compression Machine in the Sloan Auto Lab."
“对你有好处，”他说。“你们的调查范围到底是什么？”
"Good for you," he said. "What exactly is the scope of your investigation?"
为了让事情发挥作用并离开这里。“我将研究涡流速率对柴油燃烧点火延迟的影响，”我说。
To get the thing to work and to get out of here. "I'll be looking at the effect of swirl rates on ignition delay in diesel combustion," I said.
“嗯嗯。”他再次点头。他没有再问有关柴油燃烧的问题，因为这超出了他的专业范围。“你会使用什么样的仪器？”
"Um hmmm," he nodded again. He didn't ask any more about diesel combustion because that was outside his realm of expertise. "What kind of instrumentation will you be using?"
“我还不太清楚——瞧，这是我第一天，我只是想找个方向，”我回答道。
"I don't know exactly yet-see, this was my first day and I'm just trying to get oriented," I answered.
“嗯，听起来很有趣。祝你好运。”
"Well, it sounds like a lot of fun. Good luck with it."
谢谢，弗雷德。也许有一天我们会共同撰写一篇论文。
Thanks, Fred. Maybe we'll co-author a paper some day.
8:15 PM 未能从历史中汲取教训的人注定会重蹈覆辙。过去的实验论文位于巴顿工程图书馆八楼。化学、电气、土木、核、机械工程。一排排黑色装订的打字纸页，每页都有前作者、顾问、研究生系主任的三个签名。侧面用瘦小的白色大写字母写着作者的名字，以及完成年份，最早可以追溯到 20 世纪 40 年代。如果再往前追溯，你就必须去看缩微胶片。
8:15 P.M. He who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat it. The theses of experiments past are on the eighth floor of the Barton Engineering Library. Chemical, electrical, civil, nuclear, mechanical engineering. Rows upon rows of black-bound typewritten pages, each with three signatures on the front-author, adviser, graduate department chairman. The name of the author is written on the side in skinny white capital letters, together with the year of completion, as far back as the 1940s. Any further back than that and you have to go to microfiche.
我从韦斯特开始，科学博士。'71。有一些发出黄色火焰的彩色图片。科学博士 是科学博士，这比博士更有意义。因为汽车机械师与科学的距离比与哲学的距离要近得多。只有麻省理工学院、斯坦福大学、加州理工学院和其他一些精选学校提供科学博士学位的选择。而不是博士学位。文凭上。它使超级精英能够相互认出，而无需弯腰询问他们的资历是从哪里获得的。
I started with West, Sc.D. '71. There were some color pictures of glowing yellow flames. An Sc.D. is a doctor of science, which makes more sense than a Ph.D. since auto mechanics is a lot closer to science than it is to philosophy. Only MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, and a few other choice schools offer the option of Sc.D. instead of Ph.D. on the diploma. It enables the hyperelite to recognize each other without stooping to ask where they earned their credentials.
我查看了韦斯特论文后面的参考文献列表。他提到了 68 年的 Pyra，他拥有布拉格大学的学士学位。Pyra 没有任何图片，只有图表。我把它们都放在我的堆栈中。Pyra 提到了 Nayak，'63-BS，开罗大学。Nayak 也有很多图表，他提到了 Rathle，'5 9。Rathle 于 1957 年从埃及亚历山大大学获得了学士学位。Rathle 建造了 RCM。我和我的设备都二十五岁了。
I looked in the list of references in the back of West's thesis. He referred to Pyra, '68, whose B.S. was from the University of Prague. Pyra didn't have any pictures, just graphs. I put them both in my stack. Pyra referred to Nayak, '63-B.S., University of Cairo. Nayak had lots of graphs, too, and he referred to Rathle, '5 9. Rathle had received his B.S. from the University of Alexandria, Egypt, in 1957. Rathle had built the RCM. My apparatus and I were both twenty-five years old.
拉思尔的图表让我眼前一亮。该机器有三个室。发生燃烧的前气缸是尼克和我当天早些时候拆下的。前部的后部有“止回爪”，当轴到达冲程末端时，止回爪卡住轴，防止其向后弹跳或被爆炸柴油的压力向后推。中间的气缸装有压缩空气和一个尺寸是前活塞四倍的活塞。更大的面积使整个轴能够向前移动，即使燃烧室的压力远高于油箱中的压力。
Rathle's diagrams made the scales drop from my eyes. The machine had three chambers. The front cylinder, where combustion took place, was what Nick and I had removed earlier in the day. The back part of the front part had "nonreturn pawls," which caught the shaft as it went to the end of the stroke and kept it from bouncing backward or being pushed backward by the pressure of the exploding diesel fuel. The middle cylinder had compressed air and a piston four times the size of the front piston. The bigger area enabled the whole shaft to move forward, even when the combustion chamber's pressure was much higher than the pressure in the tank.
后缸内装有各种尺寸的环，并充满传动液。后缸轴上的活塞会减慢整个轴的速度，使压缩冲程类似于真实发动机中的压缩冲程，其中活塞连接到旋转曲轴。
The back cylinder had various-size rings in it and was filled with transmission fluid. A piston on the shaft in the back cylinder would slow down the whole shaft to make the compression stroke similar to that in a real engine, where the piston is attached to a rotating crankshaft.
从 Rathle 开始，参考文献就出现在期刊中——Taylor，1948；塞尔登，1937；罗斯罗克，1932；摩尔，1922；福尔克，1906 年。
From Rathle back the references were in journals-Taylor, 1948; Selden, 1937; Rothrock, 1932; Moore, 1922; Falk, 1906.
福克的机器是一个充满氢气的垂直管。他的轴顶部有一个铅锤，活塞上有绳索活塞环来密封活塞和气缸之间的间隙。他放下重物并测量气体燃烧的温度。第一个版本很简单，几乎微不足道，但本质上与我的大块灰色金属相同。
Falk's machine was a vertical tube filled with hydrogen. His shaft had a lead weight on top, and the piston had rope piston rings to seal the gap between the piston and cylinder. He dropped the weight and measured the temperature at which the gas combusted. That first version was simple, almost trivial, but essentially the same as my large gray mass of metal.
法尔克提到勒夏特列，正如勒夏特列原理（1888）中所说：当外力施加到平衡状态的系统时，系统会进行调整，以尽量减少所施加力的影响。”顺其自然。
Falk referred to LeChatelier, as in Le Chatelier's Principle (1888) : When an external force is applied to a system at equilibrium, the system adjusts so as to minimize the effect of the applied force." Go with the flow.
我在大英百科全书中查找了迪塞尔。鲁道夫·迪塞尔（Rudolph Diesel，生于 1858 年，卒于 1913 年），德国热能工程师，也是一位杰出的艺术鉴赏家、语言学家和社会理论家。在奥格斯堡的技术学校期间，他观看了中国古代火棍的演示。火棒的历史可以追溯到公元前 1000 年或更早，就像安装在自行车车架上的自行车打气筒一样。你将一片干树叶或一块干燥的易燃木头放在一端，将其关闭，对泵进行一次良好的快速压缩，然后启动，点火。从这次演示中产生了他的发动机的想法。
I looked up Diesel in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Rudolph Diesel (born 1858, died 1913), German thermal engineer, was also a distinguished connoisseur of the arts, a linguist, and a social theorist. While at the technical school in Augsburg, he saw a demonstration of the ancient Chinese fire stick. The fire stick, dating to 1000 B.C. or earlier, is like the bicycle pumps that fit on the frame of the bicycle. You put a dry leaf or a dry tindery piece of wood in one end, close it off, give the pump one good rapid compression, and pow, fire. From that demonstration came the idea for his engine.
我觉得我和一群很好的人在一起，继承着传统、遗产。
I felt I was in good company, carrying on a tradition, a legacy.
迪塞尔开发了他的发动机，积累了巨大的财富，但投资却很糟糕，但由于未知的原因，他在前往伦敦的途中从德累斯顿号邮船的甲板上“显然坠落”了。
Diesel developed his engine, amassed great wealth, invested poorly, and for reasons unknown "apparently fell" from the deck of the mail steamer Dresden en route to London.
周三
Wednesday
“这个嘿哟是千分尺，”尼克说。“你拿这个来测量某个东西有多大，以千分之一英寸为单位。真正奇特的尺寸会下降到万分之一，但我们只会做千分之一。”
"This heeyuh's a micrometer," Nick said. "You take this and you measure how big something is, in thousandths of inches. The real fancy ones go down to ten-thousandths, but we'll just do the thousandths."
千分之一英寸对我来说似乎小得难以理解——怎么可能精确地测量任何东西呢？如此规模的事情怎么可能重要呢？
A thousandth of an inch seemed incomprehensibly small to me-how could anything be measured that precisely? How could anything matter on that scale?
尼克继续说道：“你像这样握住千分尺，看，然后将两个销钉彼此分开地放在工件上。” 工件是安装在车床上的金属棒。“你想让千分尺的两端从工件上滑落，然后读取它。这会告诉你还需要脱掉多少千分之一。这根杆上有一点生锈，我们可以采取这一点要么把可乐倒在上面，要么把它关小。”
Nick continued, "You hold the micrometer like this, see, and you put the two pins just apart from each other on the workpiece." The workpiece was a bar of metal mounted in the lathe. "You want to make the two ends of the micrometer just slip off the workpiece and then you read it. That'll tell you how many thousandths you still need to take off. There's a little rust on this bar, and we can take that off by either pouring Coke over it or turning it down."
我想知道机械师从一块金属上刮下皮肤的表情与作为一个人被拒绝之间是否有任何联系。
I wondered whether there were any connection between the machinists' expression for scraping the skin off a piece of metal and being turned down as a person.
“首先我们必须将工具放入工具架中，”尼克继续说道。“这就是刀刃，”他一边说，一边握住那块一英寸长的金属片，指着锋利的一面。“我们将把它用螺栓固定到机器上，然后通过转动这里的交叉进给手轮将其带到工件上。”
"First we gotta put the tool in the tool holder," Nick continued. "This here's the cutting edge," he said, holding the inch-long piece of metal and pointing out the sharp side. "We're going to bolt it into the machine and then bring it just up to the workpiece by turning the cross-feed handwheel here."
手轮上有刻度，因此手轮旋转一圈，可使安装有切削刀具的金属块向工件移动十分之一英寸。旋钮上的刻度盘外侧有 100 个哈希标记。划分十分之一英寸的一百个哈希标记允许您将切削工具移动千分之一英寸。就像千分尺一样，该装置可以放大空间。
The handwheel had gradations in it so that one revolution of the handwheel made the block of metal to which the cutting tool was attached move a tenth of an inch toward the workpiece. The dial on the knob had 100 hash marks around the outside. The hundred hash marks dividing up a tenth of an inch allow you to move the cutting tool a thousandth of an inch. Like the micrometer, the device magnifies space.
尼克将刀具推向工件，然后将其向前移动千分之五。该工具在锈迹上切开了一点条子，露出了下面纯净、干净的钢材。“现在，船长，慢慢地转动这个曲柄，你就会把整根杆子减掉千分之五。不过，我们先在上面涂一点切削油。”
Nick advanced the tool to the workpiece and then moved it forward five thousandths. The tool cut a little sliver through the rust, showing the pure, clean steel underneath. "Now, Cap'n, turn this crank nice and slow and you'll take five thousandths off the whole rod. Let's put a little cutting oil on there first, though."
他从油罐里滴了几滴，看起来就像工程师用来润滑火车的那种。当工具接触时，油冒烟，我慢慢转动曲柄，当我从轴的长度上去除千分之一时，条子形成了连续的钢丝。
He put a few drops from the oil can that looked like the kind engineers use to lubricate their trains. The oil smoked when the tool made contact, and I turned the crank slowly and the sliver made a continuous thread of steel as I removed the thousandths from the length of the shaft.
“很好，船长。现在把工具带回来，你就可以多花千分之几来练习了。” 我又去掉了千分之十，在去掉千分之十五的地方，杆的长度明显变小了。
"Very good, Cap'n. Now bring the tool back and you can take some more thousandths off for practice." I took ten more thousandths off and the rod was noticeably smaller on the length where I removed the fifteen thousandths.
“今天的学习应该足够了，船长。我带了这本书给你看，”尼克说着，递给我一本他在第一堂机械车间课上使用过的涂有油脂的手册——实用手册。加工。
"That oughta be enough school for today, Cap'n. I brought in this book for you to take a look at," Nick said, handing me the grease-marked manual that he'd used in his first machine shop class-Practical Machining.
封面插图展示了十六世纪的工人正在操作脚踏车床。首先是砖块，然后是滑轮、火棒，现在简单的车床想法已经存在很长时间了。
The cover illustration showed workers in the sixteenth century operating a foot-powered lathe. First the brick, then the pulley, the fire stick, now the lathe-simple ideas have been around for a very long time.
我走回牢房，在玛丽走进商店的路上遇见了她。她穿着一件实验夹克，上面写着她的名字，名字上方写着“Dynatech”。
I walked back to my cell and met Mary on her way into the shop. She wore a lab jacket with her name written on it, and above her name was written "Dynatech."
“嗨，唐，”她指着我的实验室夹克说道。
"Hi, Don," she said, referring to my lab jacket.
“嗨，玛丽。是什么让你来到这些岗位的？我以为你还是一名助教呢。”
"Hi, Mary. What brings you to these parts? I thought you were still a teaching assistant."
“我和 West 签订了 RA，就像你一样，”她说。“我正在实验室另一端与保罗·卡恩一起研究卡特彼勒发动机。” 她看着尼克借给我的书，说道：“开始做生意？”
"I got an R.A. with West, just like you," she said. "I'm working with Paul Kahn on the Caterpillar engine at the other end of the lab." She looked at the book Nick lent me and said, "Taking up a trade?"
“这么说吧，这将是我的经济衰退保险。”
"Let's just say it'll be my recession insurance."
“如果你想要经济衰退保险，你应该成为一名水管工。机械师将是第一个被解雇的。”
"If you want recession insurance you ought to become a plumber. Machinists will be the first to get laid off."
“是啊，好吧，我越多才多艺越好。你想看看我的牢房吗？”
"Yeah, well, the more versatile I can be the better. Do you want to take a look at my cell?"
“当然，”她说。
"Sure," she said.
我打开门。工作台上的牛皮纸以及摆放整齐的设备和工具给她留下了深刻的印象。“它看起来非常专业，”她说。“墙上的裂缝是什么？” 她问。
I opened the doors. She was impressed by the brown paper on the workbenches and the neatly laid out equipment and tools. "It looks very professional," she said. "What's that crack up at the top of the wall there?" she asked.
“过去每次测试时，机器都会把建筑物的一部分带走。释放的力量就像小炮一样。”我回答道。
"The machine has taken part of the building with it every time they've done a test in the past. The forces released are like those from a small cannon," I answered.
“哇哦。小心点。我希望你在这里的时候不会发生任何爆炸。”
"Whoa. Be careful. I hope nothing blows up while you're in here."
我还没有想到危险。然后我想起了韦斯特关于物理学家和激光的故事。马特·阿姆斯特朗告诉我，麻省理工学院的正式职业安全相当宽松，因为研究生应该是专业人士，而专业人士会照顾好自己。
The danger hadn't yet occurred to me. Then I remembered West's story about the physicist and the laser. And Matt Armstrong had told me that formal occupational safety at MIT is fairly lax because graduate students are supposed to be professionals, and professionals take care of themselves.
“我会小心的。我们可以看一下你的牢房吗？”
"I'll be careful. Can we take a look at your cell?"
“当然，”当我们走向实验室的北端时，她回答道。
"Sure," she answered, as we walked to the north end of the lab.
我看到其他测试室门上的标语：“定容燃烧弹：赞助商：能源部”；“方活塞透明发动机：赞助商：工业联合体”；“用于研究活塞环运动的透明气缸：赞助商：通用汽车公司。” 我问玛丽她是否知道这些项目是如何获得资金的。
I read the signs on the doors of the other test cells: "Constant Volume Combustion Bomb: Sponsor: Department of Energy"; "Square Piston Clear Engine: Sponsor: Industrial Consortium"; "Clear Cylinder for Study of Piston Ring Motion: Sponsor: General Motors." I asked Mary whether she knew how these projects got funded.
“有多种途径。其中一些公司有研究预算，用于大学。汽车行业研究部门的一半人都拥有这里的学位，他们在发放资助时会想起他们的伙伴。一些赞助商期望真正的结果，直接应用于发动机的东西，但大多数情况下他们追求的是概念的进步和对过程的理解。他们在教授和学生基于研究撰写的论文中得到了这一点。另外，他们得到了很好的结果-训练有素的研究人员可以立即开始为通用汽车、克莱斯勒或福特开发产品。我们来了。”
"There're several avenues. Some of these companies have research budgets that they spend on universities. Half the people in the automotive industry's research departments have degrees from here, and they remember their buddies when they give out the grants. Some of the sponsors expect real results, things that will directly apply to engines, but mostly they're after advances in concepts and understanding of the processes. They get that in the papers the professors and students write that are based on the research. Plus, they get well-trained researchers who can hit the ground running developing products for GM, Chrysler, or Ford. Here we are."
她打开牢房的门，里面有一个蓝色的、新漆的发动机，有大约二十根电线连接到角落里一个看起来像电脑的东西。
She opened the door to her cell, where there was a blue, newly painted engine with about twenty wires connecting it to a computery looking thing in the corner.
“那是什么？” 我问。
"What's that?" I asked.
“这是实验室数据采集系统。安装在发动机上的传感器将数据发送到这里的小计算机。然后它将数据文件下载到楼上的大型计算机进行分析。”
"It's the lab data acquisition system. The sensors mounted on the engine send their data to the little computer here. Then it downloads the data files to the mainframe computer upstairs for analysis."
够简单的。“那么到目前为止进展如何？” 我问。
Simple enough. "So how's it going so far?" I asked.
“很好，”她平静地说。“唯一的问题是，我的项目合作伙伴是佐治亚理工学院的一个真正的傻瓜。我不知道他是如何被录取的。”
"Pretty good," she said quietly. "The only problem is that my partner on the project is a real dork from Georgia Tech. I don't know how he got accepted."
也许他和韦斯特谈论了自行车。
Maybe he talked bicycles with West.
“好吧，我希望一切顺利，”我说。“我必须回去工作。现在每一分钟的进步都意味着我会更快地完成工作，并能够继续我的生活。”
"Well, I hope everything works out all right," I said. "I've got to go back to work. Every minute of progress now means I'll finish that much sooner and be able to get on with my life."
我看了看机器前面的镀铬轴，尼克和我在前一天拆下气缸时揭开了这个轴。它周围大约三分之一处有一条裂缝，就在止回爪卡住它的肩部附近。压迫的力量已经造成了伤害。我从轴的其余部分拧下镀铬部分，并将棒球棒大小的轴带到尼克在一块金属上钻孔的地方。
I looked at the chrome-plated shaft on the front of the machine, the shaft Nick and I'd unveiled when we removed the cylinder the day before. It had a crack about one-third of the way around it, right near the shoulder where the nonreturn pawls caught it. The force of the compressions had taken their toll. I unscrewed the chrome section from the rest of the shaft and carried the baseball-bat-size shaft to where Nick was drilling a hole in a piece of metal.
“有问题，尼克。轴上有裂缝。我们有什么办法可以修复它吗？我不希望一年后当我快要完成我的实验时这东西会折断。”我说。
"Problem, Nick. The shaft's got a crack in it. Is there any way we can fix it? I don't want the thing to break off a year from now when I'm almost ready to finish my experiments," I said.
“我们可以不理会它——它可能会保持笔直直到断裂——或者我可以在整个轴周围焊接一个珠子。这会让它更坚固，但它可能会使轴稍微弯曲。这取决于你”。
"We could leave it alone-it'll probably stay straight until it breaks-or I can weld a bead around the whole shaft. That'll make it stronger, but it'll probably bend the shaft a little. It's up to you."
“如果轴弯曲了，我们能把它弯曲回来吗？”
"If the shaft bends, can we bend it back?"
“我们可以尝试，”他说。
"We can try," he said.
“好吧。我们去焊接吧。”
"OK. Let's go for the weld."
我们去了焊接区域，尼克戴上了他的小焊接帽和皮革，这让他看起来像西班牙宗教裁判所中的酷刑者。他递给我一套皮手套、一顶帽子和一顶玻璃纤维焊接头盔，头盔上有经过处理的玻璃缝，可以通过它观察焊缝。玻璃处理可以让您看到焊缝，但看不到其他东西。
We went to the welding area and Nick put on his little welding cap and the leathers that made him look like a torturer in the Spanish Inquisition. He handed me a set of leather gloves, a cap, and a fiberglass welding helmet with a treated glass slit through which to look at the weld. The glass treatment allows you to see the weld but not much else.
“好的，船长。你握住它并慢慢转动它，然后我会焊接它。如果你握住末端，你就会离得足够远，任何金属都不会撞击，所以你不需要皮革。 ”
"OK, Cap'n. You hold it and turn it slowly, and I'll weld it. If you hold the end you'll be fah enough away an none of that metal will hit, so you won't need leathers."
我戴上头盔，尼克也戴上。焊缝的明亮闪光接触到肩部的金属，我慢慢地转动轴。尼克花了大约两分钟的时间将其周围焊接完整，将暂时熔化的金属像蛋糕糖霜一样分层。
I put on my helmet, as did Nick. The bright flash of the weld contacted the metal at the shoulder and I slowly turned the shaft. It took about two minutes for Nick to weld all the way around it, layering the temporarily molten metal like cake frosting.
“好了。应该可以了，”他说。“现在，在你用它做任何其他事情之前，先把它放进那边的水桶里。”
"There. That should do it," he said. "Now before you do anything else with it, put it in that bucket of water over there."
我将焊接端放入桶中，它像水槽中的热煎锅一样闪动水。
I put the welded end in the bucket, and it flashed the water like a hot frying pan in a sink.
“把它放在那里一段时间。那家伙很性感，”尼克说。
"Keep it in there for a while. That guy's hot all right," Nick said.
蒸汽消失后，我们将轴放入车床上。尼克设置了一个千分表，一个小圆形仪表，一侧有一根销钉，仪表上有一根指针。如果将销钉推入，针会四处移动并告诉您销钉被推入的距离。尼克将销钉抵在轴的焊接端，就像他将切割工具抵在钢片上一样。
After the steaming died down we put the shaft in the lathe. Nick set up a dial indicator, a little round gauge with a pin coming out of one side and a needle on the gauge. If you push the pin in, the needle moves around and tells you how far the pin is pushed in. Nick put the pin against the welded end of the shaft just as he'd put the cutting tool against the piece of steel.
“是时候评估损失了，船长，”他边说边转动轴。当他转动轴时，指针一路上升，到表盘上的千分之十五，然后回到零，然后又上升到千分之十五，又回到零。“还不错，”他说。“现在去哈玛。”
"Time to assess the damage, Cap'n," he said, as he turned the shaft around. The needle went way up, to fifteen thousandths on the dial, then back to zero, and then up to fifteen thousandths and back to zero as he turned the shaft around. "Not too bad," he said. "Now for the hammah."
“你会怎样做？” 我问。
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
“轻拍一下，让它再次变直。”
"Give it a tap to make it straight again."
他转动轴，使最高点位于千分表销处，将千分表移开，然后用塑料头木槌快速、尖锐地敲击轴的末端。他再次设置了指示器，最高点下降到千分之四半。
He turned the shaft so the high spot was at the dial indicator pin, moved the dial indicator away, and gave the end of the shaft a quick, sharp tap with the plastic-headed mallet. He set up the indicator again and the high spot was down to four and a half thousandths.
“我想我们最好趁我们领先的时候放弃，船长，”他说。“这家伙够正直，还能再坚持二十年。”
"I think we bettah quit while we're ahead, Cap'n," he said. "This guy's straight enough and he'll last another twenty years."
“好的，尼克。谢谢。”
"OK, Nick. Thanks."
那天晚上，外面的温度低于零，钥匙无法插入我的氪石自行车锁。锁上的金属已经收缩了——收缩幅度不大，可能是千分之一英寸或两英寸，但足以阻止那把又大又热的钥匙插入。
That night the temperature outside was below zero and the key wouldn't go into my Kryptonite bicycle lock. The metal in the lock had shrunk-not much, maybe a thousandth of an inch or two, but enough to prevent the big, warm key from fitting.
在咖啡店里，我要了一杯热水、一个塑料袋和一根橡皮筋。
At the coffee shop I asked for a cup of hot water, a plastic bag, and a rubber band.
我把塑料袋包在锁上，用橡皮筋固定，然后慢慢地将热水倒在塑料袋上。然后我迅速取下塑料，将钥匙插进锁，打开自行车，然后骑回家睡觉。
I wrapped the plastic bag around the lock, secured it with the rubber band, and slowly poured the hot water over the plastic. Then I quickly removed the plastic, put the key into the lock, unlocked the bike, and rode home to bed.
麻省理工学院的座右铭是“Mens et Manus”——“思想和手”。
The MIT motto is "Mens et Manus"-"Mind and Hand."
章节
C H A P T E R
8
8
监工们
The Taskmasters
法老吩咐监工说，你们不可再给百姓干草做砖。……让人们承担更多的工作，让他们在其中劳作；让他们不要重视虚言......
And Pharoah commanded the taskmasters, saying ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick. ... Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein; and let them not regard vain words....
出埃及记 5:6-9
EXODUS 5:6-9
日程：
Schedule:
82 年春季：2.651 内燃机（Heywood）
Spring '82: 2.651 The Internal Combustion Engine (Heywood)
2.999 独立研究（格林）
2.999 Independent Study (Greene)
2.996 论文
2.996 Thesis
1982 年 2 月 15 日
February 15, 1982
能源实验室会议室位于阿默斯特街四楼，斯隆学院对面。当研究赞助商吃着他们选择的麻省理工学院餐饮服务可以召集的最好的糕点时，变阻器控制的灯处于全亮度。甚至咖啡也很好吃。
The Energy Laboratory conference room is inside the fourth floor on Amherst Street across from the Sloan School. The rheostatcontrolled lights were at full brightness while the Sponsors of the Research ate their choice of the best pastries MIT's catering service could muster. Even the coffee was good.
这是赞助商抚摸的时间。菲利普·休斯 (Philip Hughes) 是澳大利亚人，曾任卡特彼勒 (Caterpillar) 发动机研究总监。Sharma 来自印度，在 20 世纪 60 年代初发表了一篇关于柴油燃烧理论的探路论文，并领导了约翰迪尔的发动机研究。艾伯特·李 (Albert Lee) 在康明斯发动机公司一步步晋升——他是我之前最后一个在 RCM 工作的人。今年我的同事之一是让·奎斯图瓦 (Jean Questois)，他是雷诺巴黎办事处的一颗冉冉升起的新星。他们是最字面意义上的工程师。
It was sponsor-stroking time. Philip Hughes, an Australian, was director of engine research for Caterpillar. Sharma, originally from India, had published a path-finding paper on the theory of diesel combustion in the early 1960s and headed up engine research at John Deere. Albert Lee was working his way up the ladder at Cummins Engine Company-he was the last person to work on the RCM before me. And one of my office mates for the year was Jean Questois, a rising star from the Paris office of Renault. They were engineers in the most literal sense of the word.
这里没有细条纹；棕色和浅蓝色是首选的服装颜色。
No pinstripes here; brown and light blue were the clothing colors of choice.
斯隆团队有更多成员。船长是斯隆实验室主任、剑桥大学荣誉学位获得者约翰·B·海伍德教授。韦斯特是一名中尉；另一个是Chet Yeung。切特是一位新任助理教授，他的博士学位。来自麻省理工学院航空工程系，学士学位来自世界上唯一比麻省理工学院-加州理工学院更好的学院。
Team Sloan had more members. The captain was Professor John B. Heywood, director of the Sloan Lab, graduate of University of Cambridge, recipient of honorary degrees. West was one lieutenant; the other was Chet Yeung. Chet was a new assistant professor, whose Ph.D. was from the Aeronautical Engineering department at MIT and whose bachelor's degree was from the one institute in the world that is better than MIT-Cal Tech.
我是一个暴徒，正如史努比驾驶索普威思骆驼飞越他们时所说的那样，第一次世界大战的战壕步兵。我的新实验室伙伴斯科特·罗杰斯也是如此。斯科特负责大部分计算机工作，我负责大部分实验工作。第三个坏蛋是本·拉多夫斯基（Ben Radovsky），他在隔壁的牢房里从事方形活塞发动机的工作。我们的使命——我们别无选择，只能接受——是让那些穿浅蓝色和棕色衣服的人相信他们的钱花得值。
I was a blighter, as Snoopy called the World War I trench footsoldiers as he flew over them in his Sopwith Camel. So was Scott Rogers, my new lab partner. Scott would do the bulk of the computer work, I the bulk of the experimental work. The third blighter was Ben Radovsky, who worked on the square piston engine in the cell next door. Our mission-and we had no choice but to accept it-was to convince the men in light blue and brown that their money was well spent.
海伍德教授于 9:00 准时召开了会议。“我要感谢你们今天来到这里。我们的学生在过去的一个半月里一直非常努力，我想你们会对他们迄今为止所取得的进步感到满意。” 他的英国口音让他听起来比他实际上更聪明。我想像他一样，掌控局势。
Professor Heywood brought the meeting to order promptly at 9:00. "I'd like to thank you all for coming here today. Our students have been working very hard during the past month and a half, and I think you'll be pleased with the progress that they've made to date." His British accent made him sound even smarter than he was. I wanted to be like him, to command the situation.
“我们将以 Pepper White 的演讲开始会议，介绍快速压缩机实验计划的机械方面的进展，”他说。
"We'll start the meeting with a presentation by Pepper White, on the progress on the mechanical aspects of the rapid compression machine experimental programme," he said.
我的膝盖在颤抖。在经历了几次这样的会议之后，我想，任何工作面试都应该是小菜一碟。
My knees were shaking. After I've been through a few meetings like this, I thought, any job interview should be a piece of cake.
海伍德教授继续平稳地说：“然后斯科特·罗杰斯和切特·杨将讨论我们将要开发的柴油燃烧计算机模型的一些想法。午餐后，我们将听取本·拉多夫斯基的发言，然后参观实验室。在 Pepper 之前不过，首先，我想提醒大家，我们希望扩大联盟计划以包括更多赞助商，如果您知道其他发动机公司或石油公司的同事可能有兴趣参与该计划，我们'我非常感谢您让我们与他们取得联系。”
Professor Heywood continued smoothly, "Then Scott Rogers and Chet Yeung will discuss some thoughts on the computer model of diesel combustion we'll be developing. After lunch, we'll hear from Ben Radovsky and then take a tour of the lab. Before Pepper starts, though, I'd like to remind you all that we hope to expand the consortium programme to include more sponsors, and if you know of colleagues at other engine companies or oil companies who might be interested in participating in the programme, we'd be most appreciative of your putting us into contact with them."
我把一叠透明胶片和纸板框架（就像吉夫托普洛斯使用的那种）放在高架投影仪旁边，并在他完成后打开投影仪。我站在屏幕旁边，直到提示出现。
I put the stack of transparencies with the cardboard frames like the ones Gyftopoulos used next to the overhead projector and turned the projector on while he finished. I stood next to the screen until my cue came.
本把灯调暗。会议桌周围的所有人的脸都被屏幕的光照亮了。在房间黑暗的背景下，只有面孔显露出来，就像在剧院里一样。眼睛是专注的、聪明的、善良的、正派的，因为工程中没有谎言的余地。在科学领域，你可以撒谎和捏造数据，因为你不需要让任何事情发挥作用。在工程方面，产品是您诚实的证明。
Ben dimmed the lights. All the faces around the conference table were lit up by the light of the screen; only the faces showed against the darkened background of the room, as in a theater. The eyes were focused, intelligent, good, and decent, since there is no room for lies in engineering. In science you can lie and fudge the data because you don't have to make anything work. In engineering the product is the proof of your honesty.
第一张幻灯片。“我想谈谈我们的总体目标、具体的短期目标、过去几周我们完成的一些事情以及未来几个月的时间表。”
First slide. "I'd like to talk about our general objectives, our specific short-term objectives, some of the things we've accomplished in the past several weeks, and the schedule for the coming months."
当观众微笑并专心聆听时，我的膝盖颤抖开始减轻。我使用了正确的行话。
My knees started to shake less as the audience smiled and listened attentively. I was using the right lingo.
“首先是总体目标：我们想让机器启动并运行，并确定我们可以进行实验的范围。这意味着我们需要确定我们可以从机器获得的最大压力和温度，以及如何无论有无燃烧，我们都可以获得高涡流率。”
"First the general objective: We'd like to get the machine up and running and determine the range over which we can conduct our experiments. That means we need to determine the maximum pressure and temperature we can obtain from the machine, and also how high a swirl rate we can obtain, with and without combustion."
下一张机器幻灯片图。正如您所看到的，该机器具有三个室。前面当然是燃烧室；后面是驱动气室，连接压缩空气储罐；轴的更深处是带压作业室，里面充满了传动液和不同内径的环。带压作业室中的活塞在压缩冲程期间减慢轴的运动。通过改变环的顺序，我们可以使轴和活塞的运动模拟实际柴油机的运动。当轴完全向前移动时，止回爪会将轴锁定到位。因此，我们有能力观察在恒定体积下发生的燃烧。”明亮的面孔仍然微笑着。在过去的六周里，我学到了很多单词。
Next slide-diagram of machine. As you can see, the machine has three chambers. The front is, of course, the combustion chamber; behind it is the driving air chamber, connected to a compressed air storage tank; farther back on the shaft is the snubbing chamber, filled with transmission fluid and rings of varying inner diameters. The piston in the snubbing chamber slows the shaft motion down during the compression stroke. By varying the order of the rings, we can make the motion of the shaft and piston simulate that of an actual diesel. The nonreturn pawls will lock the shaft in place when it has moved fully forward. We thus have the ability to look at combustion occurring at constant volume." The bright faces were still smiling. I'd learned a lot of words in the past six weeks.
我接着告诉他们如何拆开机器并将其重新组装起来，如何与尼克一起固定轴，如何测量和绘制带有新的青铜聚四氟乙烯一体式活塞环的新活塞，如何对其进行加工并感觉它是否适合机器。轴。关于第一次整机测试不成功。
I went on to tell them about taking the machine apart and putting it back together, about fixing the shaft with Nick, about measuring and drawing a new piston with new bronze-Teflon onepiece piston rings, about having it machined and feeling it fit into the shaft. About the first unsuccessful test of the whole machine.
最后，全场响起热烈的掌声，在走向咖啡桌和丹麦餐桌的路上，韦斯特说：“头等舱。” 也许我毕竟不是一个傻瓜，我想。也许我只是在第一学期不了解这个制度，这个制度鼓励你放弃任何低于平均水平的课程。
At the end there was a warm round of applause, and on the way to the coffee and Danish table, West said, "First class." Maybe I'm not such a dummy after all, I thought. Maybe I just didn't know the system during the first term, the system that encourages dropping any course in which you're below average.
午休前，夏尔马要求我们提供每月进度报告。哦，不，还有更多的工作，我想。海伍德教授显然也是如此。
Before the lunch break, Sharma asked for monthly progress reports from us. Oh no, more work, I thought. Evidently so did Professor Heywood.
“他们是聪明的年轻人，但对他们的时间有很多要求，这可能会阻碍他们的研究进展，”他说。
"They're bright young people, but there are many demands on their time and it might impede their progress on the research," he said.
“你的意思是告诉我们，你为我们培养的人将无法每月写一篇简短的段落来说明他们所取得的成就以及他们的前进方向吗？” 夏尔马反驳道。
"Do you mean to tell us that the people you're producing for us won't be able to write a brief paragraph once a month saying what they've accomplished and where they're headed?" Sharma retorted.
海伍德教授毫不退缩地进行了回避。他仍然掌控一切，是典型的资助者。“也许报告可以每两个月准备一次，”他说。他知道他必须审阅它们，他的秘书必须打印它们，他可能必须与整个小组会面只是为了讨论这个主题。这很容易消磨一个上午的时间，而他本来应该把时间花在写书上。
Professor Heywood hedged without flinching. He was still in control, the quintessential grantsman. "Perhaps the reports could be prepared every two months," he said. He knew that he would have to review them, that his secretary would have to type them, that he might have to meet with the whole group just to discuss that one subject. It could easily kill a morning that would be better spent writing his book.
“对我来说每两个月一次就可以了，”夏尔马说，其他人也同意。
"Every two months would be fine with me," Sharma said, and the others agreed.
2月17日
February 17
艾伦·格林教授的办公室位于 7 号楼的二楼，俯瞰马萨诸塞大街和街对面的学生中心。在十月初他的能源工程讲座后我们进行了交谈，他同意在一月份收我作为一名独立学习的学生。我记得《论文追逐》中的一件事，当时哈特很荣幸地被金菲尔德邀请帮助他准备一篇学术文章；我认为这可能接近于等效。
Professor Allen Greene's office was in Building 7, on the second floor overlooking Mass. Ave. and the student center across the street. Following up on our conversation after his Energy Engineering lecture in early October, he'd agreed to take me on as an independent study student in January. I remembered the incident in The Paper Chase when Hart was honored to be asked by Kingfield to help him prepare a scholarly article; I thought this might be close to equivalent.
格林管理着应用系统工程研究所 (IASE)，这是一个工程专业职业中期再培训基地，其成立的目的是像哈佛商学院和肯尼迪政府学院为各自的行业所做的那样。
Greene ran the Institute for Applied Systems Engineering (IASE), a midcareer retraining ground for the engineering profes sion founded to do what Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government do for their respective trades.
IASE 是麻省理工学院与工业界保持密切联系的机制之一。中高层工程师或者研发经理来到麻省理工学院，上几门课，也许做一个小项目，会见很多教授，然后聘请他们遇到的教授作为顾问，弄清楚如何解决他们的问题。
IASE is one of the mechanisms by which MIT maintains its close links to industry. Mid- to upper-level engineers or research and development managers come to MIT, take a few classes, maybe do a small project, meet a lot of professors, and later hire the professors they meet as consultants to figure out how to solve their problems.
和我一样，格林也是一个局外人。IASE 是他的领地，除了主流部门之外，除了传统的终身教职轨道之外。他的博士学位。来自伊利诺伊大学，他在联合碳化物公司、世界银行（技术开发总监）和俄亥俄州立大学（工程学院院长）的职位并不完全符合麻省理工学院教授的目标，即获得终身职位并启动数百万美元的项目。美元公司。不过他对我来说已经足够好了。
Like me, Greene was an outsider. The IASE was his fiefdom, apart from the mainstream departments, apart from the traditional tenure track. His Ph.D. was from the University of Illinois, and his positions at Union Carbide, the World Bank (director of technology development), and Ohio State (dean of engineering) did not quite measure up to the MIT professor goal-getting tenure and starting a multimillion-dollar company. He was good enough for me, though.
当我走进他办公室的前厅时，他的秘书正在打印蓝色的小索引卡，上面写着他的约会和要做的事情。为了取得超常成就，你必须高度组织化。
When I entered the antechamber of his office, his secretary was typing little blue index cards with his appointments and things-to-do on it. To hyperachieve you have to be hyperorganized.
当她第一次尝试给他打电话时，他的电话占线，但在她告诉我催眠如何帮助她戒烟几分钟后，他给她打电话让我进去。
His phone was busy when she first tried to buzz him, but after a few minutes of her telling me how hypnosis was helping her quit smoking, he buzzed her to send me in.
下午四点，西边的阳光照耀着他的办公室，明亮得让他关掉了办公桌上方的荧光灯。他的办公室和吉夫托普洛斯的办公室一样，看起来像公司，只是更大，除了桌子、椅子、书柜和黑板外，咖啡桌周围还有两张 L 形沙发。
At four in the afternoon his office was bright with the western sun, bright enough that he'd turned off the fluorescents above his desk. His office was corporate-looking, like Gyftopoulos's, only bigger, with two couches in an L around a coffee table in addition to the desk, chairs, bookcases, and blackboard.
他握着我的手说：“很抱歉让你久等了；电话里是福特公司的总裁，我不想打断他。来，请坐。” 他坐在一张沙发上，我坐在另一张沙发上。“你这里怎么样？”
He shook my hand and said, "Sorry to keep you waiting; that was the president of Ford on the phone and I don't like to cut him off. Here, have a seat." He sat on one couch, I on the other. "How are things going for you here?"
我没有告诉他缓刑的事情。“哦，我想，不错。我正在斯隆汽车实验室做柴油燃烧的实验工作。海伍德教授负责这项工作，今年春天我还将参加他的发动机课程，以及与你一起进行的独立研究。”
I didn't tell him about being on probation. "Oh, pretty good, I guess. I'm doing experimental work in diesel combustion at the Sloan auto lab. Professor Heywood heads that up, and I'm also taking his engine class this spring, plus the independent study with you."
“约翰·海伍德非常出色，”他说。“你的实验工作将帮助你理解什么是可能的和现实的，即使它只是在研究方面。我们可以尝试平衡它与一些现实世界的设计问题。我希望你为我的书作为你的主要项目，但首先我们将花几周时间来复习我多年来开发的一些解决问题的技巧。”
"John Heywood is very good," he said. "And your experimental work will help you understand what's possible and realistic, even if it's a little on the researchy side. We can try to balance that with some real-world design problems. I'd like you to work up a computer example for my book as your major project, but first we'll take a few weeks to go over some problem-solving techniques I've developed over the years."
他以一种近乎同龄人或至少是未来的同龄人的身份与我交谈。真是令人耳目一新。我想知道他是否是一个好人，或者我是否正在进步。他打开咖啡桌上的马尼拉纸文件夹，说道：“我们走到黑板前……”
He talked to me with respect, as a near-peer or at least a future peer. It was refreshing. I wondered whether he was a nice guy or if I was improving. He opened up the manila folder on the coffee table and said, "Let's go up to the blackboard and ..."
不好了。又不是这个了。
Oh, no. Not this again.
..我会举一个例子来告诉你如何解决蒸汽循环问题。”他在黑板上画了一个网格，并画了一个蒸汽发电厂的图——一个锅炉，水通过火焰或核反应堆加热。 ；由锅炉产生的高压蒸汽驱动的涡轮机；将低压蒸汽转回水的冷凝器；以及将水推入锅炉的泵。世界经济就是这样的供电——任何使用电力的东西实际上都是小火。他在图表的不同点上画了一些小哈希标记，并对它们进行了编号。
.. I'll work an example to show you how to solve steam cycle problems." He drew a grid on the blackboard and a diagram of a steam power plant-a boiler where the water is heated by the flame or by the nuclear reactor; a turbine that is forced to spin by the high-pressure steam generated by the boiler; a condenser to turn the low-pressure steam back to water; and a pump to push the water into the boiler. This is how the world economy is powered-anything that uses electricity is effectively a little fire. He put little hash marks at various points in the diagram and numbered them.
“你想要做的是从循环中的一个点开始，然后按照自己的方式工作。对于循环中的每个点，你在表中放入一条线。表中的每一列都是一个变量，例如压力、温度、能量，熵。在任何设计问题中，你都会受到一定的限制，而你的工作就是设计出满足这些限制的可行解决方案，”他说。
"What you want to do is start at one point in the cycle and work your way around. For each point in the cycle, you put a line in the table. Each column in the table is a variable, like pressure, temperature, energy, entropy. In any design problem you'll be given certain constraints and your job will be to devise a workable solution that satisfies the constraints," he said.
我们两个人填写了该周期的已知量表，为未知量留了空白。这种方法是有序的、有条理的、简单的。
The two of us filled in the table of known quantities for the cycle, leaving blanks for the unknowns. The approach was orderly, methodical, simple.
这堂课是牛津和剑桥意义上的辅导课：牛津和剑桥没有课程；在牛津和剑桥，没有任何课程。相反，学生定期与导师会面。我希望麻省理工学院鼓励更多这样的事情，但这对教授来说非常耗时，如果他把时间花在教学和解释上，就没有时间进行真正的工作，如引入研究资金、咨询、出版和交付论文，为自己扬名立万。此外，如果你不能自己解决所有问题，那么你可能不适合麻省理工学院。他们想知道为什么学生会自杀。
The session was a tutorial in the Oxbridge sense: at Oxford and Cambridge there are no classes; instead students meet regularly with tutors. I wished MIT encouraged more of this, but it's very time-consuming for the professor, and if he spends his time teaching and explaining things, there won't be time for the real work of bringing in research funds, consulting, publishing and delivering papers, making a name for oneself. Besides, if you can't figure out everything by yourself, you probably don't belong at MIT. And they wonder why students kill themselves.
格林说：“从现在到我们下一次会议之间完成这个对你来说是一个很好的练习。首先用手做，然后我们会考虑将它放在计算机上。我还有另一个问题要问你，气球填充问题。我想让你弄清楚，如果你用一个大的恒压空气罐填充气球，它的体积将如何随时间变化。作为第三项，尝试提出举一些例子或类比，说明由于熵较高而无用的能量。您可以与我的秘书预约十天到两周的时间，参加我们的下一次会议。”
Greene said, "It'd be a good exercise for you to finish this between now and our next session. First do it by hand and then we'll see about putting it on the computer. I've also got another problem for you, the balloon-filling problem. I want you to figure out how the volume for a balloon will vary as a function of time if you fill it with a large constant-pressure tank of air. And as a third item, try to come up with some examples or analogies for energy that isn't useful because of high entropy. You can make an appointment with my secretary for ten days to two weeks from now for our next session."
我选了两周。我可能每天都需要。
I picked two weeks. I might need every day.
2月19日
February 19
蒸汽循环很容易。气球则是另一回事。它是热力学和流体力学的结合，其中最可怕的是“可变形控制体积”。通常，体积是固定的，并且处于稳定状态，即，事物不随时间变化。3 英寸直径的管道通常保持 3 英寸的直径，您可以在其周围画一个假想的盒子，并通过调用适当的守恒方程来计算质量、能量（无论是什么）和熵（实际上无论是什么） 。或者正如哈佛所说，所有杂志都得刊登杂志。所有进去的东西都必须出来。
The steam cycle was easy. The balloon was a different story. It was a combination of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, with that most dreaded of all things, a "deformable control volume." Usually volumes are fixed, and at steady state-i.e., things don't vary with time. A 3-inch-diameter pipe will typically stay 3 inches in diameter, and you can draw an imaginary box around it and account for mass, energy (whatever that is), and entropy (really whatever that is) by invoking the appropriate conservation equations. Or as they say at Harvard, all the gazintas gots to gazatta. Everything that goes in has to come out.
当气球在恒定压力下充满来自大罐的空气时，情况并非如此。那里的体积总是在变化，直到气球中的压力等于罐中的压力，或者直到气球爆裂。这是进阶课程。我开始尝试寻找解决方案。
Not so in the case of a balloon filling with air from a large tank at constant pressure. There the volume is always changing, until the pressure in the balloon is equal to the pressure in the tank, or until the balloon pops. This is the advanced course. I began my attempt at a solution.
步骤 1. 定义问题：画图。想想问题涉及到什么物理问题。他只是口头说出来，但我需要用符号说出来。
Step 1. Define problem: Draw picture. Think about what the problem involves physically. He just stated it verbally but I need to say it with symbols.
假设压力高于大气压每平方英寸 3 磅。在他的问题陈述中寻找关键词。大指的是罐子，意味着它不会受到气球发生的情况的影响，即，假想的罐子不断以恒定的速度抽出空气，并且永远不会排空。现在想想会发生什么。气球将充满，直到其内部的压力等于大罐中的压力。这些是初始状态和最终状态。气球将被拉伸，能量将通过气压和橡胶张力储存在气球中。
Assume a pressure, say 3 pounds per square inch above atmospheric pressure. Look for key words in his problem statement. Large referring to the tank means that it's not affected by what happens to the balloon-i.e., the imaginary tank keeps pumping air out at a constant rate and never empties. Now think about what will happen. The balloon will fill up until the pressure inside it equals the pressure in the large tank. Those are initial and final states. The balloon is going to stretch, and energy will be stored in the balloon both in the air pressure and in the tension of the rubber.
步骤 2. 前往巴克工程图书馆，翻阅每本热力学书籍，看看该示例是否以前已出版过。请注意，所有热书籍的目录几乎相同。未能找到气球填充问题的解决方案。暂时停止解决该问题。
Step 2. Go to Barker Engineering Library and look through every book on thermodynamics to see whether the example has been worked out in print before. Notice that tables of contents are almost identical for all the thermo books. Fail to find worked-out solution of balloon-filling problem. Quit working on the problem for the time being.
一周后
One week later
上午 7:00 刮胡子。刷牙。冲洗。吐。第三步：灵感闪现。在纸巾上重新画图...
7:00 A.M. Shave. Brush teeth. Rinse. Spit. Step 3. Flash of inspiration. Redraw picture on paper towel ...
旧的图片非常复杂，因为气球膨胀的几何形状是三维的，而我不是数学家，我是工程师。如果我转换到新图片，我可以清楚地看到气球的弹性集中到可以膨胀和收缩的弹簧中，并且我可以看到膨胀的体积方面是质量很小的可移动气球皮壁，仅在一个方向移动方向。如果简化方法的方程与真实气球的方程相似，我可以用简化的一维方程预测真实气球的行为。这就是他们所说的模型的意思。
The old picture is intractably complex because the geometry of the balloon's expanding is three-dimensional and I'm not a mathematician, I'm an engineer. If I convert to the new picture, I can clearly see the stretchiness of the balloon lumped into a spring that can expand and contract, and I can see the expanded volume aspect as a movable balloon skin wall with very little mass, moving in only one direction. If the equations for the simplified approach are similar to the equations for the real balloon, I can predict the behavior of the real balloon with my simplified, one-dimensional equations. This is what they mean by a model.
步骤 4. 重新绘制新图片，显示气球皮肤的运动。
Step 4. Redraw new picture, showing the motion of the balloon skin.
当空气从储气罐进入气球时，气球皮会移动 (A2) 并且弹簧会拉伸。现在要记住这个问题。找出气球体积如何随时间变化。假想的一维圆柱形气球的体积恰好是其长度乘以其圆形可移动蒙皮的恒定面积。问题归结为找出气球长度如何随时间变化。我正在进步。
As air enters the balloon from the tank, the balloon skin moves (A2) and the spring stretches. Now to remember the problem. Find how the balloon volume varies with time. The volume of the imaginary, one-dimensional cylindrical balloon is just its length times the constant area of its circular movable skin. The problem reduces to finding how the balloon length varies with time. I'm making progress.
2月27日
February 27
海伍德教授的内燃机课在 38 号楼三楼的另一个带调光器的室内房间里进行。
Professor Heywood's Internal Combustion Engine class was on the third floor of Building 38, in another interior room with dimmers.
海伍德喜欢讲义和幻灯片的授课方式。他分发了屏幕上内容的副本，并指着图表并用不同颜色的笔在透明胶片上做了笔记。这对他和我们来说都很有效。我们不会浪费时间试图重画他更容易复印的东西，海伍德教授也不会在他的米色灯芯绒夹克上沾上粉笔灰。
Heywood favored the handouts and slides approach to lecturing. He distributed copies of what would be on the screen and pointed to the diagram and made notes on the transparencies with different colored pens. This was efficient both for him and for us. We would not waste time trying to redraw what would be easier for him to photocopy, and Professor Heywood would not get chalk dust on his beige corduroy jacket.
海伍德身材修长，看起来比四十五岁还要年轻。也许每天骑自行车往返他在牛顿的家有帮助。他是众多在石油和汽车公司资助下骑自行车上班的机械工程教授之一——他重视效率。
Heywood was trim and looked younger than his forty-five years. Maybe the bicycle ride to and from his house in Newton every day helped. He was one of the many mechanical engineering professors who cycled to work even though funded by oil and car companies-he valued efficiency.
他很年轻就获得了终身教职，尽管他比大多数教员都聪明，但他并没有创办过一家公司。他更喜欢写书，在需要时进行咨询，成为一名杰出的学者。有一天，我看到他一边吃午饭，一边望着基利安庭院的树林，也许是在想，麻省理工学院的环境不如剑桥或伦敦帝国理工学院那么宜人，但这里的工资和税收都更好，而且美国的汽车工业还没有消亡。也许有一天，斯隆实验室将成为海伍德实验室，而实验室将以英国方式发音。
He'd received tenure young, and although smarter than most of the faculty, he hadn't started a company. He preferred to write his book, to consult when asked to, to be a distinguished scholar. One day I saw him eating his lunch and looking out onto the trees of Killian Court, perhaps thinking about how MIT wasn't quite as pleasant an environment as Cambridge or London's Imperial College, but the pay and the taxes were better here, and America's auto industry wasn't dead yet. Perhaps one day the Sloan Lab would be the Heywood Laboratory, and labbratory would be pronounced the British way.
当天的讲座涉及容积效率，即可以将多少空气推入罐中。如果罐子的底部上下移动，就相当于内燃机的心脏，即气缸。如果你能弄清楚如何将更多的空气推入罐中，你就可以放入更多的燃料，然后使用更多的空气来燃烧更多的燃料。这有点像吹气球。
The day's lecture concerned volumetric efficiency, or how much air you can push into a can. If the bottom of the can moves up and down, you have something like the heart of an internal combustion engine, a.k.a. the cylinder. If you can figure out how to push more air into the can, you can put more fuel in and then use the more air to burn the more fuel. It's sort of like blowing up a balloon.
讲座接近尾声时，海伍德教授提到，随着海拔的升高和空气的稀薄，发动机的容积效率会显着降低。
Toward the end of the lecture, Professor Heywood mentioned that the volumetric efficiency of an engine decreases markedly as elevation above sea level increases and air becomes thinner.
坐在我旁边、前排中间偏右的那个人举起了手，海伍德教授认出了他。“是的，阿里。”
The fellow sitting next to me in the front row just right of center raised his hand and was recognized by Professor Heywood. "Yes, Ari."
“你说得完全正确，教授。这种现象对我在戈兰高地的坦克营来说是一个大问题。幸运的是，这对俄罗斯制造的叙利亚坦克来说也是一个问题。”
"You are absolutely right, Professor. Thees phenomenon was a great problem for my tank batallion on the Golan Heights. Fortunately, it was also a problem for the Russian-made Syrian tanks."
“谢谢你提到这一点，”海伍德教授说。“这是一个很好的例子，说明了容积效率问题的重要性。”
"Thank you for mentioning that," Professor Heywood said. "That's a good example of how important an issue volumetric efficiency is."
海伍德教授结束了他的演讲，我向安做了自我介绍。他看起来三十多岁或四十出头，头发分到一边，已经花白，稀疏了许多。他戴着眼镜，穿着格子衬衫和牛仔裤，有点大腹便便。
Professor Heywood finished his lecture and I introduced myself to An. He looked as if he was in his late thirties or early forties and his hair, parted on the side, was graying and thinning a lot. He wore glasses, a plaid shirt, and jeans and had a bit of a paunch.
“你好，梅斯泰尔·佩珀·怀特，”他说。“你愿意和我一起去学生中心喝杯咖啡吗？”
"How do you do, Meestair Pepper White," he said. "Would you like to join me for a cup of coffee at the student center?"
“当然，”我说。当我们一边走一边聊天时，他告诉了我一些他的背景。他目前是以色列军队的一名少校，他的父母是二战后不久的罗马尼亚大屠杀幸存者，从以色列建国之日起他就在以色列长大。他毕业于海法理工学院，获得机械工程和工业管理学位，当时正值从军三年休假的第二年，以获取博士学位。在麻省理工学院。一位将军正是这样做的，而结束所有学位的学位帮助了少校和上校的将军进步。阿里希望同样的事情也发生在他身上。
"Sure," I said. As we walked and talked he told me a bit about his background. Presently a major in the Israeli army, he'd been born to Romanian Holocaust survivors just after World War II and then raised in Israel from the birth of the nation. He had graduated from the Technion in Haifa with degrees in both mechanical engineering and industrial management and was on the second of three years of leave from the army to get a Ph.D. at MIT. A general had done precisely that, and the degree to end all degrees had helped that general advance from major and colonel. Ari hoped the same would happen for him.
喝完咖啡后，阿里说：“来吧，我的朋友。我想给你看隔壁房间里的一些东西。” 我们走进了电子游戏室，里面挤满了极客中的极客，他们是人们对麻省理工学院书呆子的期望中最丑陋、长满粉刺的原型。他们没有考虑如何过生活，如何出去约会，而是看着阴极射线管并用屏幕下方的按钮快速做出手势来打发闲暇时光。如果我觉得自己很丑、很胖，或者觉得自己肤色不好，我就会去电子游戏室，出来后感觉自己已经为模特生涯做好了准备。
After coffee, Ari said, "Come, my friend. I want to show you something in the room next door here." We entered the video game room, in general occupied by the geekiest of the geeks, the ugliest acne-ridden prototypes of what people expect of MIT nerds. Instead of thinking about how to have a life, how to maybe go out on a date, they while away their leisure minutes looking at a cathode ray tube and make rapid gestures with the buttons below the screen. If I ever felt ugly or fat or like I had a bad complexion, I'd go to the video game room and come out feeling ready for a modeling career.
（一些视频极客在游戏上有一个主要优势；他们知道黑客在哪里。黑客是由设计机器的程序员编码的技巧，这样他就可以在他碰巧在的任何酒吧永远玩游戏由于一半的视频游戏编程人员来自麻省理工学院，并且许多来自麻省理工学院的程序员在高中或暑期工作期间为视频游戏开发人员工作，因此存在相当数量的内幕视频黑客交易。这是一个持续的来源让控制视频游戏行业的人感到烦恼。
(Some of the video geeks had a major advantage on the games; they knew where the hacks were. A hack is a trick encoded by the programmer who designs the machine so that he can play the game forever at whatever bar he happens to be in. Since half the people who program the video games are from MIT, and many of the programmers from MIT worked for video game developers during high school or during their summer jobs, there is a fair amount of insider video hack trading. It's a constant source of annoyance to the people who control the video game industry.
麻省理工学院的学生应该对这些机器有所掌握，这是公平的。第一个视频游戏 PONG 是我在霍普金斯大学读一年级时用操纵杆来回移动的黑白小条，是由麻省理工学院数字电子实验室第六一十一课的两名学生作为一个学期项目发明的。 ）
It's only fair that there should be some mastery of these machines by MIT students. The first video game, PONG, the little black and white bars that I moved back and forth with a joystick when I was a freshman at Hopkins, was invented as a semester project by two students in course six one eleven, MIT's Digital Electronics lab.)
阿里把一枚硬币放在坦克指挥官屏幕下方的壁架上，以确定我们的排队位置。到了时间，他说：“你先走，我付钱。”
Ari put a quarter on the ledge below the Tank Commander screen to establish our place in line. When our time came, he said, "You go first. I will pay."
“谢谢。你能给我简单介绍一下如何操作这个东西吗？”
"Thanks. Could you give me a little briefing on how to work this thing?"
“当然可以。你需要将一只手放在每个操纵杆上。如果你想前进，你就向前推动两个操纵杆，如果你想后退，你就将两个操纵杆向后拉。每个操纵杆控制坦克的一个履带，只需就像在真正的坦克中一样。如果您想右转，请向前推动左侧，将右侧拉回，然后以另一种方式向左行驶。当您对准目标时，同时按下操纵杆的顶部。”
"Certainly. You need to put one hand on each joystick. If you want to go forward, you push both joysticks forward, and you pull both back if you want to go backward. Each joystick controls one of the treads of the tank, just like in a real tank. If you want to turn right, push the left one forward and pull the right one back, and you do it the other way to go left. When you've lined up on the target, press both buttons on top of the joysticks."
他把硬币放进去，我试了一下。看到坦克的炮管上下移动，伴随着坦克的模拟噪音，这很有趣，无论我转向哪个方向，以避免敌人的火力和射击碉堡。阿里的指导帮助“右……后……前进……左……现在开火！”——在我的三十秒内，我击毁了三个碉堡。几百个季度后我就可以擅长这个了。
He put the quarter in and I gave it a shot. It was fun to see the barrel of the tank move up and down with the simulated noise of the tank corresponding to whichever way I was turning to avoid the enemy fire and shoot on the pillboxes. Ari's coaching helped"Right ... back ... forward ... left ... now fire!"-and in my thirty seconds I knocked out three of the pillboxes. I could get good at this after a few hundred quarters.
然后就轮到阿里了。他站得比我离机器更远，并且弯下腰，这样他的躯干几乎是水平的。“这样我对机器有了更好的感觉，”他说。
Then it was Ari's turn. He stood farther from the machine than I did and bent over so his torso was almost horizontal. "I get a better feeling for the machine this way," he said.
轰隆隆，战俘，左-右-前锋-后卫-阿里是个大师。他快速而果断地猛拉操纵杆，咕哝着，仿佛所有的紧张能量都被转化为反应和快速反应。三分钟后，经过 97 个碉堡，终于有人抓住了他。
Boom, pow, left- right- forward-back-Ari was a master. He jerked the joysticks quickly, decisively, grunting as if all his nervous energy were channeled into reflexes and fast response. Three minutes and 97 pillboxes later one finally got him.
“你一定经常玩这个，”我说。
"You must play this a lot," I said.
“实际上不是这个，”他回答道。“我在六日战争和十月战争期间通过真实的东西发展了我的能力。而这个要容易得多，因为当我玩它时我不担心自己的生命。我发现它非常放松。”
"Not this one, actually," he answered. "I developed my abilities with the real thing during the Six Day War and the October War. And this one is much easier because I am not afraid for my life when I play it. I find it very relaxing."
2月28日
February 28
回到气球。步骤5.参考步骤4中的图片。再次思考问题。还记得玛丽等人的流体力学学习课程吗？伯努利在阿诺河上的桥上看着两块岩石。如果罐中的压力并不比大气压力高很多，并且空气因此不可压缩，我可以将其称为不可压缩流并使用伯努利方程。这将告诉我空气从储罐流入气球的速度有多快，具体取决于储罐中的压力与气球中的压力相比。
Back to the balloon. Step 5. Refer to picture from Step 4. Think about problem again. Remember fluid mechanics study session with Mary et al. and Bernoulli looking over the bridge on the Arno at the two rocks. If the pressure in the tank is not a whole lot higher than atmospheric pressure, and the air is therefore not compressible, I can call it incompressible flow and use Bernoulli's equation. That will tell me how fast the air will flow from the tank into the balloon, depending on how much pressure there is in the tank compared to how much is in the balloon.
我还可以说，进入气球的所有东西都会导致气球变大。这是另一个方程，称为质量连续性方程。
I can also say that everything that goes into the balloon results in enlargement of the balloon. That's another equation, called the continuity of mass equation.
最后，我可以平衡气球表面上的力——气球的拉伸必须通过气球内部和外部的气压来平衡。这给了我三个方程和五个未知数。
And finally, I can balance the forces on the skin of the balloon-the stretchiness of the balloon has to be balanced by the air pressure inside and outside the balloon. That gives me three equations and five unknowns.
现在我要做的就是显示 x 如何随时间变化，这样我就可以绘制气球的位置，格林会认为我是英雄。
Now all I have to do is show how x varies with time, so I can graph the position of the balloon and Greene will think I'm a hero.
第 6 步：清理霍普金斯大学二年级的微分方程书本。微分方程处理随时间移动的事物，例如发动机的活塞、地球、月球或被吹胀的气球的表皮。
Step 6. Dust off differential equations book from sophomore year at Hopkins. A differential equation deals with things that move in time, like the piston of an engine, the earth, and the moonor the skin of a balloon being blown up.
微分方程书中的所有内容都涉及“线性”微分方程。这意味着第二项，即 x 点平方项，意味着我无法使用该书中的任何方法来解决这个问题。我将速度乘以速度，这使它成为“非线性”。
Everything in the differential equations book deals with "linear" differential equations. That means that the second term, the x-dot-squared term, means I can't solve this using any methods in that book. I'm multiplying the velocity by the velocity, and that makes it "nonlinear."
第7步：平底船。当研究所或问题集将你逼入绝境时，你在麻省理工学院就会这么做。
Step 7: Punt. This is what you do at MIT when the institute or the problem set has painted you into a corner.
3月2日
March 2
格林快速浏览了我的蒸汽系统解决方案，用他的十字笔检查了步骤。然后他让我到黑板前展示我对气球问题的解决方案。
Greene looked quickly through my steam system solution, checking off the steps with his Cross pen. Then he asked me to go to the blackboard to present my solution to the balloon problem.
“现在这是一个好主意，”他谈到我让气球只向一个方向膨胀时说道。“你知道，在我担任经理的这些年里，我发现有些人很有创造力，可以发明东西，有些人可以分析有创造力的人发明的东西。没有多少人能同时做到这两点，但这个解决方案让我知道你可能是其中之一。”
"Now that is a good idea," he said of my making the balloon expand in only one direction. "You know, in my years as a manager, I've found that there are people who are creative and can invent things and then there are people who can analyze things that the creative people have invented. Not many people can do both, but this solution shows me you might be one of them."
克维尔市。这家伙肯定会给我一个A。毕竟他们不能把我踢出去。
Kvel city. This guy's bound to give me an A. They won't be able to kick me out, after all.
我为他完成了这些步骤，并向他展示了我的一组不可解的方程。“这就是我的答案，”我说。“不幸的是，我不知道如何解决这个问题，以便能够将气球蒙皮的位置随时间的变化绘制出来。我想你可能会有一些建议。”
I went through the steps for him and showed him my insoluble set of equations. "This is my answer," I said. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to solve it, to be able to graph the position of the skin of the balloon as a function of time. I thought you might have some suggestions."
“好吧，如果你把这个问题带到联合碳化物公司给我，我会让应用数学部门的负责人来这里，他的一个人会在计算机上解决这个问题，”他说。“但你至少想知道足够的知识，以便与应用数学类型的人进行有知识的交谈，并防止他们在项目上花费太多时间。让我们沿着大厅到苹果公司，我将向你展示如何启动它。”
"Well, if you brought that problem to me at Union Carbide, I'd get the head of the applied mathematics department in here and one of his people would solve it on the computer," he said. "But you want to know at least enough to talk knowledgeably with the applied math types and prevent them from billing too many hours to the project. Let's go down the hall to the Apple and I'll show you how to boot it up."
电脑室是一间位于角落的办公室，大小相当于一个大壁橱，墙壁上都有窗户，还有一张桌子和苹果电脑。窗户望向七层楼的庭院。由于房间在二楼，所以从来没有阳光直射，但柔和的漫射光和窗外的树木让我感觉自己身处回廊的回廊中。
The computer room was a corner office the size of a large closet, with windows on both walls and a desk and the Apple. The windows looked out onto a seven-story courtyard; since the room was on the second floor it never received direct sunlight, but the soft diffuse light and the tree just outside the window made me feel I was in a cloister's cloister.
格林将一张软盘放入机器中，然后打开电源开关。我猜想这就是他所说的“启动它”的意思。
Greene put a diskette into the machine and turned on the on switch. I presumed that's what he meant by "booting it up."
“我将编写一个三行程序，为您添加两个数字，以向您展示如何开始，”他说。
"I'll just write a three-line program that will add two numbers for you to show you how to get started," he said.
他的手指在键盘上模糊不清，就像音乐会钢琴家的手指一样。与语音或手写不同，它们对信息传输的速度有天然的速度限制，而计算机几乎可以像他想象的那样快地接收信息。他在高中的盲打课上一定表现得很好。
His fingers blurred around the keyboard, like a concert pianist's. Unlike speech or writing by hand, which have natural speed limits on how fast information can be transfered, the computer could receive information almost as quickly as he thought. He must have done well in touch typing class in high school.
当他完成后，屏幕显示“输入A”，我输入3。“输入B”，它说，我输入5。“A + B = 8”，它说。
When he was done, the screen said "Input A," and I typed 3. "Input B," it said, and I typed 5. "A + B = 8," it said.
“你以前编程过，不是吗？” 他说。
"You've programmed before, haven't you?" he said.
“嗯，在大学的时候就知道了一点，但那总是在带有黄色纸张的电传终端上，该终端连接到大厅空调房中的一台大计算机。这看起来有点不同。”
"Well, just a little in college, but that was always on a teletype terminal with the yellow paper that was connected to a big computer in an air-conditioned room down the hall. This looks a little different."
“原则上是一样的，”他说。“这里的抽屉里有一本编程手册，所以如果你需要帮助，你可以参考它。我希望你在下次会议上做的是建立你向我展示的方程式，这样你就可以逐步完成一些事情增加时间，看看当模型中的弹簧拉伸和气球中的压力升高时，气球的表面会发生什么变化。尝试组织方程，以便信息将从一个方程流到下一个方程，以便在每一步在程序中，计算机拥有继续下一步所需的所有数据。哦，并阅读编程指南中的“子例程”。您可以使用它们将一个大而复杂的问题分解为几个较小的问题，简单的问题。这将使调试变得更加容易。现在，让我们回到我的办公室，回顾一下你提出的熵的例子。”
"It's the same in principle," he said. "There's a programming manual in the drawer here, so you can refer to that if you need help. What I want you to do for our next meeting is to set up the equations you showed me in such a way that you can step through little increments of time and see what happens to the skin of the balloon as the spring in your model stretches and the pressure in your balloon rises. Try to organize the equations so the information will flow from one equation to the next, so that at each step in the program, the computer has all the data it needs to go on to the next step. Oh, and read up on'subroutines' in the programming guide. You can use them to break up a big, complex problem into several smaller, simple problems. It'll make debugging much easier. For now, let's go back to my office and go over the examples of entropy you've come up with."
垃圾填埋场、暴饮暴食、吸烟、吸毒——在过去的两周里，现代生活的所有弊病都浮现在脑海中，但我知道他想要更具体的东西。
Landfills, overeating, smoking, drug addiction-all the ills of modern life had come to mind during the past two weeks, but I knew he'd want something more specific.
“嗯，有一天，我在马萨诸塞州大街的人行横道上，看到有人试图平行停车在一个对汽车来说短了大约 6 英寸的空间中。对于街区的长度来说，有 2 或 3 英尺其他汽车之间的距离有时长达 4 英尺。因此，如果将这些小空间加起来，您可能可以轻松地在街区中容纳三到四辆汽车。但是这些小空间本身是没有用的.这是我能想到的最好的办法了。”
"Well, the other day I was at the crosswalk at Mass. Ave. and I saw somebody trying to parallel park in a space that was about 6 inches too short for the car. For the length of the block there were 2 or 3 feet between the other cars, sometimes as much as 4 feet. So if you added up the little pieces of space you'd probably be able to fit three or four more cars into the block comfortably. But the little pieces of space by themselves were useless. That's the best I could come up with."
“这是一件好事，”他说。“你可以打个比方，空间相当于能量，空间的短小相当于熵。空间越长，代表的系统越有序，就越有用。这样很好，我就这样。我认为你正在取得进步。”
"That's a good one," he said. "You could make the analogy that space is the equivalent of energy, and the shortness of the space is the equivalent of entropy. The longer the space is, the more ordered a system it represents and the more useful it is. That's good. I like that. I think you're making progress."
章节
C H A P T E R
9
9
春天
Spring
3月15日
March 15
选战风云。零度以上的第一天，是时候清理掉精神上的蜘蛛网了。是时候去骑自行车了。我的逃生路线是穿过贝尔蒙特的特拉佩洛路。
The Ides of March. The first day above freezing, and time to blast the mental cobwebs out. Time to go on a bicycle ride. My escape route was out Trapelo Road through Belmont.
压力依然存在，但学期只有两场考试，放松的时间更多了。爬上第一个主要山坡贝尔蒙特山时，我记得我的旧自行车教练告诉我要坐在马鞍上并拉动上冲程。他说这样可以让我腿前面的肌肉放松，让用过的血液流出，新的血液流入。如果我总是用力推我的腿前面，紧张感就会增强，我的腿会感觉很累。我就会被从队伍中剔除。
The pressure was still constant, but with only two exams scheduled for the term, there was more relaxing time. Up the first major hill, Belmont Hill, I remembered my old cycling coach's telling me to sit back in the saddle and pull on the upstroke. He said that would allow the muscles in the front of my legs to relax and let the used blood flow out and the new blood flow in. If I always pushed on the front of my legs the tension would build up and my legs would feel tired and I'd be dropped from the pack.
这有点像海伍德对内燃机的描述。燃料进入气缸，燃烧，然后排出并排出。如果将废气留在气缸中，就没有空间容纳新鲜的、未燃烧的燃料和空气，你的汽车就会熄火。
It was sort of like Heywood's description of an internal combustion engine. Fuel goes into the cylinder, gets burned, then pushed out and exhausted. If you kept the exhaust in the cylinder, there wouldn't be room for the fresh, unburned fuel and air, and your car would stall.
在 128 号公路立交桥处，我上下看了看八车道的高速公路。两侧是连绵不断的二层楼房。旁边的牌子上写着“128号公路：美国科技高速公路”。我继续前行，经过霍尼韦尔光电部门、雷神公司贝德福德导弹系统部门、数字公司、EG&G。
At the Route 128 overpass, I looked both ways up and down the eight-lane highway. On both sides were continuous lines of two-story buildings. The sign on the side said, "Route 128: Amer ica's Technology Highway." I rode on, past Honeywell's ElectroOptic Division, past Raytheon's Bedford Missile Systems Division, past Digital, past E.G.& G.
所有这些地方要么是由麻省理工学院的毕业生创建的，要么是由麻省理工学院的毕业生组成的。哈维家族在纽约拥有大部分权力，但最有权势的技术人员在 7 号楼二十英里范围内生活和工作。我想知道在一栋只有小隔间和很少窗户的低层建筑中工作会是什么样子。
All these places were either founded by or heavily populated by MIT grads. The Harveys have most of their power in New York, but the most powerful Techies live and work within twenty miles of Building 7. I wondered what it would be like to work in a lowrise building with cubicles and very few windows.
穿过康科德中心并经过肯·奥尔森的房子。Ken Olsen 于 50 年代从麻省理工学院毕业，随后在旋风计划中与 Jay Forrester 教授一起研究计算机内存技术，并从那里分拆了一家公司——数字设备公司。肯的身价有十亿二十亿美元，但仍然住在简陋的家里。
On through Concord Center and past Ken Olsen's house. Ken Olsen graduated from MIT in '50, went on to work with Professor Jay Forrester on computer memory technology in Project Whirlwind, and from there spun off a company-Digital Equipment Corporation. Ken is worth a billion or two and still lives in a modest home.
再往前走，我看到了吉夫托普洛斯的勤劳成果。好吧，不是整个水果，因为车道太长，你无法从街上看到整个房子。隔壁是热电公司另一位创始人乔治·哈索普洛斯 (George Hatsopoulos) 的房子。乔治表明，你不必成为麻省理工学院的教授才能赚到一百万美元。就他而言，一名博士学位。机械工程专业知识和如何测量汽车尾气中氮氧化物浓度的好主意就足够了。
Farther on, I saw the fruit of Gyftopoulos's industry. Well, not the whole fruit, because you can't see the whole house from the street because the driveway's so long. Next door was the house of the other Thermo Electron founder, George Hatsopoulos. George showed that you don't have to be a professor at MIT to make a million bucks. In his case, a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a good idea for how to measure the concentration of nitrogen oxide in automobile exhaust were sufficient.
回到镇上，Thermo Electron 距离他们家不到五分钟车程。也许，如果我努力的话，我可以效仿他们所有人。
Back toward town Thermo Electron was less than a fiveminute drive from their houses. Maybe, if I worked hard, I could emulate all of them.
旅途感觉很好，洗完澡后，就到了苹果时间。格林给了我一把电脑房钥匙和一张软盘。
The ride felt good, and after my shower, it was Apple time. Greene had given me a key to the computer room and a floppy disk.
当时是两点钟，阳光明媚，如果我有勇气的话，我会很高兴继续骑自行车去康科德、卡莱尔、阿克顿或哈佛，但这不是我在剑桥的原因。
It was two o'clock, and sunny, and if I'd had my druthers I would have happily continued cycling on to Concord or Carlisle or Acton or Harvard, but that's not why I was in Cambridge.
回廊朝内，与街道隔绝，窗外有棵树，漫射的阳光照亮了粉红色石灰岩墙壁的上部，是一个宁静的避难所。这里只是我的想法，以及沃兹尼亚克和乔布斯这两个没有上过大学的人写的手册的智慧。
The cloister, facing inward, shielded from the street, with the tree just outside the window and the diffuse sunlight brightening the upper part of the pink limestone walls, was a peaceful sanctuary. Here it was just my thoughts, and the wit of the manual written by two guys who hadn't gone to college, Wozniak and Jobs.
好吧，苹果。我是用户。保持友好。
Okay Apple. I'm a user. Be friendly.
苹果以身作则。该语言是 BASIC，大多数人学习编程所使用的语言。在 BASIC 中，遵循示例程序的逻辑相当容易。我输入了示例程序，它们就工作了。这开始为我建立起因果关系；如果你输入正确的内容，并且没有放错括号，也没有拼写任何内容，并且绝对、完美、一致地正确执行，那么它就有效。
Apple taught by example. The language was BASIC, the language in which most people learn to program. In BASIC, it's fairly easy to follow the logic of the sample programs. I typed in the sample programs, and they worked. This began to establish a cause-and-effect relationship for me; if you type in the right thing and don't misplace parentheses and don't misspell anything and do it absolutely, perfectly, uniformly right, it works.
到了六点钟，我就完成了手册。这有点像听保罗·戴斯蒙德的唱片，试图挑选出即兴的即兴重复段，然后用我的单簧管随机演奏它们。我会一次拿起一个乐句，一旦我知道保罗·德斯蒙德在做什么，他在用什么和弦工作，他在修饰什么音阶，我就可以自己尝试，也许稍微改变一下顺序，尝试不同的音符排列。在我意识到之前我已经是一名程序员了。您模仿这些图案，并意外地发现新的组合并发展自己的风格。时间消失了，我迷失在其中，这几乎变得有趣，而不是工作。
By six o'clock I'd finished the manual. It was sort of like listening to a Paul Desmond record and trying to pick out the improvisational riffs and play them by ear on my clarinet. I'd pick it up a phrase at a time, and once I knew what Paul Desmond was doing, what chords he was working from, what scales he was embellishing, I could experiment on my own, maybe change the order a little bit, try different permutations of the notes. Before I knew it I was a programmer. You imitate the patterns, and by accident you discover new combinations and develop your own style. The time disappeared and I became lost in it and it became almost fun, not work.
日落后，办公室的灯光让窗户变成了镜子，我看到自己坐在电脑旁边，想象着《新闻周刊》上“麻省理工学院的怀特”的照片，这位才华横溢的年轻工程学教授，他的研究正在解决世界能源和环境问题。我会穿着 V 领套头衫，向后靠在办公椅上，双手抱在脑后，肘部向外。背景里的书柜已经满了。
After sunset the office light made the window a mirror, and I saw myself beside the computer and imagined the Newsweek picture of "MIT's White," the brilliant young engineering professor whose research is solving the world's energy and environmental problems. I'd wear a V-necked pullover, lean back in the desk chair, and have my hands clasped behind my head and elbows out. The bookcases in the background would be full.
回到气球。是时候参考方程和绘图了。格林曾说过，我需要考虑我编写的任何算法（解决方案方法）中的信息流。这意味着我需要将三个方程按顺序排列，以便一个计算的结果将输入到下一个计算的未知侧，该答案将输入到下一个计算的未知侧，依此类推。这就是我将如何穿越时空并吹爆我的气球。
Back to the balloon. Time to refer to the equations and the drawing. Greene had said I need to think of the flow of information in any algorithm (solution method) I write. That means I need to take my three equations and arrange them in an order so that the result of one calculation will feed into the unknown side of the next calculation, that answer will feed into the unknown side of the next calculation, and so on. This is how I will march through time and blow up my balloon.
苹果先生的标志是一个苹果，上面有彩虹，苹果被咬了一口。苹果是知识树上的果实。彩虹是一次洪水就足够的承诺。咬一口听起来就像一个字节是8位。这是什么意思呢？
Mr. Apple's logo is an apple with a rainbow on it and a bite out of it. The apple is the fruit from the tree of knowledge. The rainbow is the promise that one flood was enough. A bite sounds like a byte is 8 bits. What does it all mean?
3月21日
March 21
该办公室是研究生的大本营。我的办公室在实验室楼上，靠近 Chet Yeung 和 West 的实验室。大厅尽头有五间办公室。阿里的在我的一侧。阿里的一位同事是俄罗斯人，他于 58 年与家人一起离开了苏联。斯科特·罗杰斯在我的另一边。本·拉多夫斯基就在大厅对面。
The office is home base for graduate students. Mine was upstairs from the lab, near those of Chet Yeung and West. There were five offices at the end of the hall. Ari's was on one side of mine. One of Ari's office mates was a Russian who'd left the Soviet Union in '58 with his family. Scott Rogers was on the other side of me. Ben Radovsky was across the hall.
史蒂夫·盖格与本和玛丽共用办公室。玛丽设置了一个鱼缸，房间中央还放了一个咖啡壶和一张大绘图桌。我们这些来自邻近办公室的人经常会走进来，泡一杯茶或一杯咖啡，拉一把椅子到绘图桌前，谈论凸轮轴。来自北京的董先生和董太太就在隔壁。他们经常在改装的电咖啡壶中煮海藻类的材料，这些材料会散发出奇怪的气味。
Steve Geiger shared the office with Ben and Mary. Mary had set up a fish tank, and they also had a coffeepot and a big drafting table in the center of the room. Often those of us from neighboring offices would walk in, make a cup of tea or cotl-e, pull a chair up to the drafting table, and talk camshafts. Mr. and Mrs. Tung from Beijing were next door. They often boiled seaweedlike materials that gave off strange smells in their adapted electric coffeepot.
办公室成为您社区意识的核心。每个科室又分为亚专业。你在课堂上遇到的任何线索都可能在不同的小组中，所以你没有理由在外面或课后见到他或她。或许在无限走廊或者学生中心咖啡店里偶尔会有偶遇，但除此之外，你们就失去了联系。这就是为什么该学院如此孤独的地方——知识和学生都是分割的。
The office becomes the core of your sense of community. Every department is divided into subspecialties. Anycue you meet in a class may be in a different group, so you have no reason to see him or her outside or after the class. There may be an occasional chance encounter on the infinite corridor or in the student center coffee shop, but other than that, you lose contact. It's part of why the institute is such a lonely place-the knowledge and the students are segmented.
我在绘图桌上喝茶时与玛丽聊天，韦斯特打断了我。
I chatted with Mary while drinking tea at the drafting table, and West interrupted.
“玛丽，我们需要谈谈燃料系统。保罗在实验中没有尽全力，而且——
"Mary, we need to talk about the fuel system. Paul's not pulling his weight in the experiment and--
电话响了。
The phone rang.
韦斯特接起电话，回答道：“玛丽现在正在开会。稍后再打来。”然后挂断了电话。
West picked it up, answered, "Mary's in a meeting now. Call back later," and hung up.
玛丽的脸气得通红。她站起来对韦斯特说：“你以后不要再这样做了。我不在乎你是谁，也不在乎你有什么样的权力。你没有权利这样拦截电话。”
Mary's face turned red with rage. She stood up and said to West, "Don't you ever do that again. I don't care who you are or what kind of power you have. You have no right to intercept a call like that."
“嗯，我想我愿意，”韦斯特说。“你觉得怎么样，佩珀？”
"Well, I think I do," West said. "What do you think, Pepper?"
这是一件卑鄙的事。你有权力，而且，因为我正在缓刑，所以我需要所有能得到的有权力的朋友。“无可奉告，”我回答道。
It was a scummy thing to do. You have power, and, because I'm on probation I need all the powerful friends I can get. "No comment," I answered.
韦斯特继续说道。“无论如何，玛丽，我希望你替保罗做掩护。我们必须让项目继续进行。”
West continued. "Well anyway, Mary, I want you to cover for Paul. We've got to keep the project moving."
当韦斯特消失在听不见的地方后，玛丽说道：“你为什么不支持我？我以为你是我的朋友。”
After West was out of earshot Mary said, "Why didn't you stick up for me? I thought you were my friend."
“你自己做得很好。我不想卷入其中。此外，他还让我免于负债，”我说。
"You did pretty well for yourself. I didn't want to get involved. Besides, he's keeping me out of debt," I said.
“好吧，我想我们知道你的优先事项是什么。谢谢。非常感谢。”
"Well, I guess we know where your priorities are. Thanks. Thanks a lot."
“嘿，听着。我很抱歉。有一天我会尽力补偿你。”
"Hey, look. I'm sorry. I'll try to make it up to you someday."
3月25日
March 25
La Chasse aux fuites。寻找泄漏点。我以比以前更高的压缩比发射 RCM。这是个好消息。坏消息是，冲程顶部的压力大约是所需压力的一半。这意味着存在泄漏。
La chasse aux fuites. The search for leaks. I'd fired the RCM at a compression ratio higher than ever before attempted. That was the good news. The bad news was that the pressure at the top of the stroke was about half as high as needed. That meant there were leaks.
当两块金属彼此相邻并且机器内部的压力将您试图压缩的任何液体或气体推出时，机器就会泄漏。我向新任助理教授 Chet Yeung 寻求帮助，在 West 准备在 128 号公路上创办他的公司时，他逐渐成为了我的顾问。
Machinery leaks when two pieces of metal are next to each other and the pressure inside the machine pushes out whatever liquid or gas you're trying to compress. I asked Chet Yeung, the new assistant professor, who was gradually becoming my adviser as West was preparing for the start-up of his company on Route 128, for help.
切特什么都知道。他出生于香港，五岁时就制作了 Heathkit 收音机。高中期间的一个夏天，他担任了一名机械师。另一个夏天，他在一家机床厂担任绘图员。还有一个夏天，他担任了一名计算机程序员。这一切都是在他从加州理工学院毕业并获得应用数学学位之前发生的。切特想成为一名数学家，虽然还不够优秀，无法成为一名伟大的数学家，但他正在成为一名伟大的工程学教授。
Chet knew everything. Born in Hong Kong, at age five he had built Heathkit radios. One summer during high school he worked as a machinist; another summer he worked as a draftsman in a machine tool plant. Yet another summer he worked as a computer programmer. This was all before he graduated from Cal Tech with an applied mathematics degree. Chet wanted to be a mathematician, wasn't quite good enough to be a great one, but was well on his way to becoming a great engineering professor.
“所以你必须放入一些 O 形圈，”他说。“你必须检查每个表面，找出泄漏路径可能在哪里，然后将它们放在那里。” 切特从身后的书架上抽出十本笔记本中的一本，翻到其中描述 O 形环设计的一页。O 形圈是一种细长的橡胶圈，可安装在凹槽中，防止空气或水泄漏。
"So you have to put some O-rings in," he said. "And you have to look at every surface to see where the leakage paths might be and put them there." Chet pulled one of the ten notebooks off the bookshelf behind him and turned to a page in it that described O-ring design. An O-ring is a skinny rubber donut that fits in a groove and prevents the air or water from leaking.
切特快速画出了凹槽尺寸的草图，列出了 O 形圈尺寸，然后派我去找尼克，让他加工凹槽。
Chet made a quick sketch of the groove dimensions, made a list of the O-ring sizes, then sent me down to Nick to have him machine the grooves.
尼克正在铣削一个零件，收音机里正在播放“Begin the Beguine”。
Nick was milling a part, and "Begin the Beguine" was playing on the radio.
“你听到这个消息了吗，船长？” 尼克问道。“一架飞机刚刚从迈阿密起飞，不得不掉头。重建发动机的机械师忘记装上一些 O 形圈，轴承油几乎全部泄漏出来。想象一下。没有人丧生就很幸运了。”
"You hear the news, Cap'n?" Nick asked. "A plane just took off from Miami and had to turn around. The mechanic who rebuilt the engine forgot to put some O-rings in and the bearing oil almost all leaked out. Imagine that. 'S lucky no one got killed."
O 形圈很重要。
O-rings are important.
3月29日
March 29
所有 O 形圈都就位，是时候进行另一次射击了。轴位于最后面的位置，由轴后部槽中的一小块金属固定到位。在轴的后面有一个摆锤，基本上是一根一端有铰链的管子。这个想法是提高罐中的压力，然后让钟摆摆动到轴的后部。这小块金属的强度足以避免因气压对轴的拉力而断裂，但当钟摆撞击它时，其强度不足以保持住。摆锤是打破轴背部的管子。
All O-rings in place, it was time for another firing. The shaft was in its backmost position, held in place by a little piece of metal in a slot in the back of the shaft. There was a pendulum, basically a pipe with a hinge on one end, at the back of the shaft. The idea was to raise the pressure in the tank and then let the pendulum swing into the back of the shaft. The little piece of metal was strong enough to avoid breaking with the pull of the shaft from the air pressure, but not strong enough to hold when the pendulum hit it. The pendulum was the pipe that broke the shaft's back.
切特、斯科特、尼克和我在测试间里尝试使用新 O 形圈进行第一次点火。轴已安装完毕，我打开阀门，让油箱上的驱动压力增大。
Chet, Scott, Nick, and I were in the test cell when we tried the first firing with the new O-rings in place. The shaft was set up and I opened the valve to let the driving pressure on the tank build up.
空气充满储罐时发出嘶嘶、清脆的声音，压力表攀升至 10、20、30 磅每平方英寸 (psi)。第一个重击声出现在 52 psi 的压力下。我关上了阀门。我的脉搏高达 90。
The air made a hissing, ringing sound as it filled the tank and the gauge climbed up through 10, 20, 30 pounds per square inch (psi). The first thunk noise came at 52 psi. I closed the valve. My pulse was up to 90.
“那是什么？” 我问。
"What was that?" I asked.
尼克在后面拿着钟摆的地方回答。“我记得那个，船长；那是第一个。没什么好害怕的。金属只是在自我调整。”
Nick answered from the back where he was holding the pendulum. "I remember that one, Cap'n; that's the first one. Nothing to be afraid of. The metal's just adjusting itself."
“继续增加压力，”切特在牢房对面说道，他正在调整示波器的亮度。示波器就像我之前在 Weare 实验室看到的一样，基本上是一台只有一个通道或迹线的电视机。它的电子束在屏幕上从左向右移动。当 RCM 气缸中的压力升高时，电子束将向上偏转，并生成测量的气缸压力与时间的发光图。示波器是我们观察快速世界的眼睛，这些事情发生在几分之一秒之内。
"Keep raising the pressure," Chet said from across the cell where he was adjusting the brightness of the oscilloscope. The oscilloscope was just like the ones I'd seen before in Weare's lab, basically a TV set with only one channel, or trace. Its beam of electrons went from left to right on the screen. As the pressure rose in the RCM's cylinder, the electron beam would be deflected upward and make a glowing graph of measured cylinder pressure versus time. The oscilloscope was our eye on the world of the very fast, the things that happen in small fractions of a second.
在 90 磅/平方英寸压力下，又发出一声闷响，罐体开始吱吱作响。
At 90 psi there was another thunk and the tank started to creak.
“这是有史以来最高的高度，船长。任何更多的压力都是未知的领域，”尼克一边说，一边用空着的手在胸前画了十字。
"That's as high as it was ever run, Cap'n. Any more pressure is unexplored territory," Nick said as he crossed himself with his free hand.
“让我们把它提高到 110，”切特说。“在这个水平上仍然有足够的安全系数。我们至少需要那么多的压力来推动气缸在更高的压缩比下产生的压力。”
"Let's raise it to 110," Chet said. "There's still plenty of safety factor at that level. We'll need at least that much pressure to push through the pressure the cylinder will develop with the higher compression ratio."
迄今为止最响亮的撞击声是 105 psi，但没有爆炸，所以我继续将压力保持在 110 psi。我的脉搏仍然随着压力而上升。我关上了阀门。
The loudest thunk yet came at 105 but nothing blew up, so I kept going to 110 psi. My pulse still rose with the pressure. I closed the valve.
“准备好了吗，尼克？”
"Ready, Nick?"
“等着吧，船长。”
"And waiting, Cap'n."
尼克放开了钟摆。
Nick let go of the pendulum.
一切就像一声枪响，瞬间就结束了。示波器上的迹线上下摆动。
It was over in an instant like a gunshot. The trace on the oscilloscope bobbed up and down.
“看起来既是好消息又是坏消息，”切特说。
"Looks like good news and bad news," Chet said.
“你是什么意思？” 我问他（过去式。
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
“我认为不再有泄漏，但我们需要更大的压力。活塞前进，弹回，前进，弹回，随着压缩气体冷却，活塞最终一路向前。”
"I think there are no more leaks, but we need more pressure. The piston went forward, bounced back, went forward, bounced back, and as the compressed gas cooled, the piston finally made it all the way forward."
一切都在半秒钟之内。
All in half a second.
切特补充道，“我们需要一个更强大的水箱，也许是一个新的启动机构，也许是一个新的轴。让我们看看轴。尼克，你手边有千分尺吗？”
Chet added, "We're going to need a stronger tank, maybe a new starting mechanism, maybe a new shaft. Let's take a look at the shaft. Nick, do you have your micrometer handy?"
“是的，先生，教授，”尼克说。
"Yes, sir, Professor," Nick said.
在我们将轴拉回到预射位置后，切特拧紧了轴摆端上的千分尺，然后将其沿着轴移动到机器背面。
After we pulled the shaft back into prefiring position, Chet tightened the micrometer on the pendulum end of the shaft and then moved it down the shaft to the back of the machine.
“这就是我所担心的，”当千分尺沿着轴的长度变得越来越松时，他说道。“我们还需要一个新的轴。这个轴已经用更大的力拉伸，所以它变得更长更细。以前它就像支撑着一辆丰田车；现在它支撑着一辆凯迪拉克。”
"That's what I was afraid of," he said as the micrometer became looser and looser along the length of the shaft. "We'll need a new shaft, too. This one has been stretching with the higher force, so it becomes longer and skinnier. Before it was like it was supporting a Toyota; now it's supporting a Cadillac."
新油箱、新轴、新启动机构。我的牢房任期将增加多少个月？
New tank, new shaft, new starting mechanism. How many months will that add to my term in the cell?
4月20日
April 20
春天完全与我们同在，终于始终如一的温暖。水仙花开了，天空蔚蓝，飘着几朵微风徐徐的云彩，帆船又回到了查尔斯号上。当我在绿色大厦前遇见玛丽时，我感觉像是新生了。
Spring was fully with us, consistently warm at last. The daffodils were out, the sky was blue with some big breezy clouds, and the sailboats were on the Charles again. I felt newborn when I met Mary in front of the Green Building.
“你听说过吉夫托普洛斯吗？” 她问。
"Did you hear about Gyftopoulos?" she asked.
“没有。那他呢？” 我说。
"No. What about him?" I said.
“他心脏病发作了。”
"He had a heart attack."
所以他毕竟是一个人。我想知道他是否有过濒死体验，是否在死亡阴影的幽谷中在身体上方漂浮了一会儿，并说还不到时间——还有太多的学生要教——或者他是否只是昏了过去，除了胸口的疼痛什么也没有。
So he's a human being after all. I wondered whether he'd had a near-death experience, whether he'd floated up above his body for a few moments in the valley of the shadow of death and said it's not time yet-there are too many more students to teach-or whether he'd just blacked out and there was nothing but the pain in his chest.
“他还好吗？” 我问。
"Is he OK?" I asked.
“是的。我听说他刚刚从重症监护室出来。他将在医院待几周，但他们认为这是轻微的。他可能需要减轻一些体重并戒烟，”她回答道。
"Yes. I heard he just got out of intensive care. He'll be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, but they think it's a mild one. He'll probably have to take off some weight and quit smoking," she answered.
“我当然希望他能渡过难关。他是个好人。顺便问一下，你那个愚蠢的实验室伙伴怎么了？我已经有一段时间没在实验室里看到他了。”
"I sure hope he pulls through. He's a good man. By the way, what ever happened to your dorky lab partner? I haven't seen him around the lab for a while."
“他被解雇了。他们只是让他坐下来，告诉他他不能做研究，现在他就走了。我认为他正在做某种计算机咨询或其他什么，”她说。
"He was booted out. They just sat him down and said to him that he couldn't do research and now he's gone. I think he's doing some kind of computer consulting or something," she said.
这些家伙一直在打球。如果你不能生产，你就成为历史。
These guys play for keeps. If you can't produce, you're history.
4月22日
April 22
我在无尽的走廊里遇见了吉姆·斯图尔特。常春藤盟校的那种会意的表情已经褪色，被他在习题和考试中取得的 50% 的分数所淹没。他的计算器挂在腰带上。
I bumped into Jim Stuart going down the infinite corridor. The Ivy League knowing look had faded, had been beaten out of his eyes by all the 50 percents he'd scored on problem sets and exams. His calculator was on his belt.
“吉姆，计算器怎么了？” 我问。
"What's the deal with the calculator, Jim?" I asked.
“那又怎样？”
"What about it?"
“它在你的腰带上。你不记得了吗？我敢打赌，你一定会向你高中里任何这样做的人扔纸团，”我说。
"It's on your belt. Don't you remember? I bet you would have thrown spitballs at anyone in your high school who did that," I said.
“哦，”他停顿了一下。“是的。嗯，这实际上是一种非常方便的携带方式。这个盒子可以保护计算器，它可以解放我的手臂来携带书籍和其他东西，而不用担心它掉落。”
"Oh," he paused. "Yeah. Well, it's actually a really convenient way to carry it. The case protects the calculator, and it frees up my arms to carry books and other things without worrying about dropping it."
功能大于形式。
Function is greater than form.
5月12日
May 12
“你有了一个良好的开端，我现在预计会取得更多进展，”格林说。
"You made a good start, and I would have expected more progress by now," Greene said.
“我需要更多时间，先生。夏天实验室里的情况应该会好一些，所以我应该能够解决气球问题。此外，计算机建模的整个业务对我来说有点新鲜。我只是完全不知道如何让方程流畅起来。”
"I need some more time, sir. Things should ease up in the lab during the summer, so I should be able to finish off the balloon problem. Besides, this whole business of computer modeling is kind of new to me. I'm just totally stumped on how to make the equations flow."
他说：“你自己弄清楚这一点很重要。我可以教你，但是学习和被教之间有很大的区别。你知道，这有点像试图在外国学习语言。说你去吧到市场上，你想买一些没有展示的东西，例如苹果。如果你知道该语言中的 100 个单词，你将使用所有这些单词来尝试传达你需要的第 101 个单词。在这个过程中，你可能会从店主那里学到更多的单词。当你最终想到第 101 个单词，并且你咬了一口苹果时，你已经将知识内化了，并且你永远不会忘记它。Capisce？
He said, "It's important that you figure this out for yourself. I could teach you, but there's a big difference between learning and being taught. You know, it's sort of like trying to learn the language in a foreign country. Say you go out to the market and you want to buy something that's not on display-apples, for example. If you know 100 words in the language, you'll use all of them trying to communicate that 101st word that you need. In the process you may learn a few more words from the shopkeeper. When you finally hit on that 101st word, and you're taking a bite out of the apple, you've internalized the knowledge, and you'll never forget it. Capisce?"
“那我要怎么做才能得到B呢？” 我问。
"So what do I have to do to get a B?" I asked.
他回答说：“如果你能让你的气球模型像你现在设置的那样工作，并在现实的压力和弹性下产生有意义的结果，我会给你一个 B。我会给你直到夏天结束这样做。如果之后还有时间，你可以让模型更真实一点，我会给你 A。这与能源工程关系不大，但这是一个好问题，这就是为什么我们称其为独立问题研究一下。顺便问一下，你还想出了更多关于熵的例子吗？”
He answered, "If you can make your balloon model work as you've now set it up and produce meaningful results with realistic pressures and elasticities, I'll give you a B. I'll give you till the end of the summer to do that. If there's any time left after that, you can make the model a little more realistic and I'll give you an A. This isn't related much to energy engineering but it's a good problem and that's why we call it independent study. By the way, have you come up with any more examples of entropy?"
“呃，是的。我还想到了一些，”我说。“我以前参加过自行车比赛，在比赛中取得好成绩的关键始终是从 100 人的赛场中以 15 人的成绩突围。一旦突围领先对手一两分钟，就永远不会被追上. 休息中的家伙们合作得很顺利，你只需要与风搏斗，就像你自己冲出队伍前面的十五分之一一样。队伍通常无法组织自己来弥合差距，所以突破的领先优势会越来越大。”
"Uh, yeah. I've thought of a couple more," I said. "I used to race bicycles, and the key to doing well in races was always to be in a 15-man breakaway from the 100-man field. Once the breakaway is a minute or two ahead of the pack it'll never be caught. The guys in the break work together smoothly, and you only have to fight the wind one-fifteenth as much as you would if you sprinted off the front of the pack by yourself. The pack generally can't organize itself to bridge the gap, so the breakaway's lead just gets bigger and bigger."
“嗯，”他回答道。“因此，关于如何更有效地共享风荷载的信息流在脱离时比在群体中更有效。更好的信息流意味着更好的组织和更低的熵。我喜欢它。另一个例子是什么？”
"Umhmmm," he answered. "So the flow of information as to how to share the wind load more efficiently is more efficient in the breakaway than in the pack. Better information flow means better organization and lower entropy. I like it. What's the other example?"
“我在《环球报》上读到，波士顿比堪萨斯州风大，但波士顿并不是风车的好地方，因为风向总是在变化。所以波士顿的风车会花很多时间转向迎风，而且等它迎风的时候，风向可能又变了。”我边说边在他的黑板上画了一张图。
"I read in the Globe that Boston is windier than Kansas, but Boston isn't as good a place for windmills because the wind direction is always changing. So a windmill in Boston would spend a lot of time turning to face the wind, and by the time it faces the wind, the wind direction may have changed again," I said, and drew a picture on his blackboard.
“因此，在极限情况下，”格林补充道，“风车将来回转动，并且永远不会迎风足够长的时间来产生任何动力。风车转动，但转动导致没有动力传递到螺旋桨。你是开始内化熵。”
"So in the limiting case," Greene added, "the windmill will turn back and forth and never face the wind long enough to produce any power. The windmill turns, but that turning results in no power delivered to the propellor. You're beginning to internalize entropy."
5 月 15 日。
May 15.
海伍德的考试地点是1-134室。我特意提前到达，找到看门人打开锁着的门，整理好我的书本和笔记本，找到墙上插座，将借来的计算器插入墙上插座，削尖我的十二支二号铅笔，用牙线清洁牙齿。凌晨一点十五分，距离考试开始还有十五分钟，一切都准备就绪。
Heywood's exam was in Room 1-134. I made a point of arriving early, finding the janitor to open the locked door, arranging my books and notebooks, finding a wall outlet, plugging my borrowed calculator into the wall outlet, sharpening my twelve number two pencils, flossing my teeth. Everything was in order at 1: 15, fifteen minutes before the exam would start.
我在四个问题集和学期项目上的得分高于平均水平。我绝对是在B区，除非，当然，我在决赛中哽咽了。远低于平均分的分数会让我进入 C 区并流落街头。
My scores on the four problem sets and the term project were above average. I was definitely in B territory, unless, of course, I choked on the final. A well-below-average score would put me into C-land and onto the street.
我走到外面，坐在基利安法院的亨利·摩尔雕塑上。我试图理清思绪，接受我需要传递的灵感。当我闭上眼睛时，新修剪的草坪闻起来很甜。
I went outside to sit on the Henry Moore sculpture in Killian Court. I tried to clear my thoughts, to be receptive to the inspiration I'd need to pass. The fresh-cut lawn smelled sweet when I closed my eyes.
发射还有五分钟时，我回到了教室。本·拉多夫斯基和另外两个人站在我的办公桌旁边大笑。走近一点，我看到我的计算器坏在地板上，十二支二号铅笔随意地放在邻近的桌子下面。
At five minutes to launch I went back to the classroom. Ben Radovsky and two other guys were standing next to my desk and laughing. A little closer, I saw my calculator broken on the floor, and the twelve number two pencils at rest randomly underneath the neighboring desks.
“发生了什么？” 我惊慌失措地问道。
"What happened?" I asked, panic-stricken.
本说：“我没有看到你的计算器线，我被它绊倒了。”
Ben said, "I didn't see your calculator cord and I tripped over it."
他的语气中没有一丝歉意。显然，我的计算器设置是一个错误的设计，给公众带来了危险。没关系，我的桌子和墙上插座之间的距离不到一英尺；别介意任何有思想的人都会走相反的路。
There was no tone of apology in his voice. Obviously, my calculator setup was a faulty design and had presented a hazard to the public. Never mind there was less than a foot between my desk and the wall outlet; never mind that any thinking human being would have walked around the other way.
“是啊，那有什么好笑的呢？” 我问他（过去式。
"Yeah, and what's so funny about that?" I asked him.
“好吧，你必须承认，你如此仔细地安排事情并试图提前计划一切，然后这一切发生了，这有点有趣。这就是伍迪·艾伦会发生的事情，”本坏笑道。
"Well, you've got to admit it's kind of funny that you set things up so carefully and tried to plan it all in advance and then this happens. It's the kind of thing that would happen to Woody Allen," Ben smirked.
“好吧，没有计算器我就完蛋了。”我说。“你还有多余的吗？”
"Well, I'm screwed without a calculator," I said. "Do you have an extra one?"
“没有，我只带了一个，我需要它。”
"No, I only brought one, and I need it."
阿里拍了拍我的肩膀。
Ari tapped me on the shoulder.
“在这里，我的朋友，”他说。“我多带了两个，放心吧，已经充满了。”
"Here, my friend," he said. "I brought two extras. Don't worry; it's fully charged."
“哦，太棒了，非常感谢。你救了我的命。”我回答道，想给他一个拥抱。“但是你为什么带了三个？”
"Oh great, thanks a lot. You've saved my life," I answered, wanting to give him a hug. "But why'd you bring three?"
他回答说：“这只是良好的工程冗余系统的原则之一。”
He answered, "It's just one of the principles of good engineering-redundant systems."
章节
C H A P T E R
10
10
掌控之中
In Control
日程：
Schedule:
Summer '82：2.023 系统动力学与控制（米勒）
Summer '82: 2.023 System Dynamics and Control (Miller)
2.999 独立研究（格林）
2.999 Independent Study (Greene)
2.996 论文
2.996 Thesis
六月初，吉夫托普洛斯走出沃克餐厅。他看上去瘦了二十磅，走路也很慢，比心脏病发作前更加犹豫。他意识到自己不会永远留在麻省理工学院；他会继续留在麻省理工学院。你可以从他的眼睛里看到这一点。我第一次感觉到我拥有他比我领先五十或六十年所没有的东西。当他打招呼时，他的声音有点试探，就像他走路的样子一样。
In early June Gyftopoulos walked out of the Walker dining hall. He looked a good twenty pounds thinner, and he walked slowly, more tentatively than before the heart attack. He'd wakened up to the fact that he wasn't going to be at MIT forever; you could see it in his eyes. For the first time I felt I had something he didn'tfifty or sixty years ahead of me. When he said hello, his voice was a little tentative, like his walk.
“是的，我恢复得很好，Pepper。谢谢你的询问。我开始每周上班两天，逐渐恢复到五天。”
"Yes, I'm recuperating fine, Pepper. Thank you for asking. I'm starting by coming in to work two days a week, and gradually I will work back up to five."
“很高兴见到您回来，先生。”
"It's good to see you back, sir."
“能回来真好。”
"It's good to be back."
我在海伍德的课上只得了B。并不是说我在期末考试中的表现很出色，而是全班一半以上的人的表现至少和我一样暗淡。如此模糊，以至于海伍德教授在随考试发回的评论中写道：“虽然你们中的一些人表现出了对所提出概念的完全掌握，但你们中的许多人并没有表现出我所期望的组织和清晰度。你们每个人都可能问问自己，‘我想把这份考试寄给我的父母，向他们展示我在麻省理工学院所做的伟大工作吗？’”
I squeaked out the B in Heywood's class. It wasn't that my performance on the final was stellar, but that over half the class's performance was at least as murky as mine. So murky that Professor Heywood, in the critique he handed back with the exams, wrote, "While some of you showed complete mastery of the concepts presented, many of you did not show the organization and clarity I would have expected. Each of you might ask yourself, 'Would I want to send this exam to my parents to show them the great work I'm doing at MIT?'"
他知道如何将针放在我们能感觉到的地方。但 B 就是 B，而且我至少还要在这里待三个月。
He knew how to put the needle where we would feel it. But a B is a B and I'm here for another three months minimum.
该学院在夏季非常悠闲。因为本科生不在，紧张的能量水平降低了几个数量级。你通常只修一门课，教授们也会去度假。麻省理工学院的日间营正在开课，新晋的辅导员带领一大群小孩去游泳池和健身房。
The institute is laid back in the summertime. Because the undergrads are away, the nervous energy level is reduced by several orders of magnitude. You generally take only one course, and professors go on vacation. The MIT day camp is in session, and fresh young counselors lead large groups of little kids to the swimming pool and the gym.
不过，有几个朋友走了，我很想念他们。马特·阿姆斯特朗 (Matt Armstrong) 在创纪录的一年内完成了硕士学位，并以 35,000 美元的薪水在 Owens Coming 找到了一份高级研究科学家的工作。迈克尔·皮卡迪 (Michael Picardi) 留在了 TPP，所有课程都获得了 A 的成绩，但从未找到资助；他转到普林斯顿大学，在那里他们给了他全额经济支持。艾克·托马斯在第二个学期获得了两个 C，并且像玛丽的实验室伙伴一样被解雇了。阿姆里特（Amrit）是一名壁球运动员，他认为能源很容易获得，他在维也纳找到了一份为欧佩克（OPEC）模拟世界石油需求的工作。
Several friends were gone, though, and I missed them. Matt Armstrong had finished his master's degree in record time1 year-and was off to a job for $35K as senior research scientist for Owens Coming. Michael Picardi had stayed in TPP, had earned A's in all his classes, but had never found funding; he transferred to Princeton, where they gave him full financial support. Ike Thomas received two C's the second term, and, like Mary's lab partner, was given the boot. And Amrit, the squash player who thought that energy was easy, had landed a job modeling world oil demand for OPEC in Vienna.
麻省理工学院不同于法学院、商学院或医学院。人们按照自己的时间表来来去去，所以没有“1984级机械工程硕士生”之类的东西。没有凝聚力；结识朋友、结交朋友，除了你自己的能力或缺乏能力之外，别无他法。
MIT is unlike law, business, or medical school. People come and go on their own schedules, so there is not, for example, a "Class of 1984 Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Students." There's no cohesion; there's nothing but your own ability, or lack thereof, to meet people and make friends.
我唯一的暑期课程是二二三系统动力学与控制。这是一个本科生课程，但夏季版本主要由罗森诺亲切地称为“海军家伙”的人组成。就像我在罗森诺传热课上遇到的那些人一样，他们通常比其他研究生年龄大，并且正在攻读硕士学位。
My only summer class was Two-oh-two-three-System Dynamics and Control. It's an undergraduate class, but the summer version was populated mainly by what Rohsenow affectionately referred to as "the Navy Guys." Like the ones I'd met in Rohsenow's heat transfer class, they were generally older than the other graduate students and were working toward master's degrees.
聪明的海军人员曾就读于安纳波利斯、普渡大学或佐治亚理工学院的学院。愚蠢的人也有很大比例，我认为他们会帮助测试曲线。然而，海军教授的是团队合作、组织和纪律：海军们在做题时互相帮助，他们以前的考试档案无可挑剔，他们工作努力，而且注意力集中。他们也习惯了睡眠不足。这些品质可以弥补愚蠢，所以我也必须在这门课上为我的成绩而努力。
The smart navy guys had been to the academy at Annapolis, or Purdue, or maybe Georgia Tech. There was a good percentage of dumb ones, too, and I thought they would help the curve on the tests. However, the navy teaches teamwork, organization, and discipline: the navy guys help one another on the problem sets, their files of previous exams are impeccable, they work hard, and they concentrate well. They're also used to sleep deprivation. These qualities can make up for stupidity, so I would have to work for my grade in this class, too.
David Miller 对 13 号楼的全班同学说：“反馈控制系统是让一切正常运转的因素。一切本质上都是不稳定的，反馈环路会采用不稳定的系统并改变系统方程，使其成为稳定的系统。例如，行走是不稳定的；看看一个试图弄清楚这一点的婴儿。他或她还没有弄清楚或对自己进行编程，以了解应用于他的伺服电机（他的肌肉）的正确增益。所以他就停下来了“很多，或者更确切地说是地毯。但渐渐地，我们确实调整了我们的收益，我们可以走路了。”
"Feedback control systems are what makes anything that works work," David Miller said to the class in Building 13. "Everything is inherently unstable, and the feedback loop takes an unstable system and changes the system equation to make it into a stable system. For example, walking is unstable; just look at a baby trying to figure it out. He or she hasn't yet figured out or programmed himself to know the right gains to apply to his servomotors-his muscles. So he hits the stops a lot, or rather the carpet. But gradually we do get our gains tuned, and we can walk."
David 停顿了一下，然后继续说道，但在控制系统之前，您需要能够对系统的性能进行建模。我们已经制定了许多技术来做到这一点。这是课程的第一部分。然后我们将继续弄清楚如何找到我们需要应用于我们在课程第一部分中组合的开环系统的增益。这基本上就是控制的作用——对开环系统进行建模并找到闭环增益，其中增益是指你推动系统做你想做的事情的力度和速度。”
David paused a second, then continued, But before you can control a system, you need to be able to model the performance of a system. We've worked out a number of techniques for doing this. That's the first part of the course. Then we'll go on to figure out how to find the gains we need to apply to the open loop systems we've put together in the first part of the course. That's basically what controls are-modeling open-loop systems and finding closed-loop gains, where by gain I mean how hard and fast you push the system to do what you want."
模型模型模型。终于我可以不用脸红地使用这个词了。大卫当然做到了。他看上去已经快三十岁了，有一头卷发，据他说是他儿子的少年棒球联盟队友拉着的，问道：“这是真的吗？” 他非常聪明、才华横溢、充满热情。他还没有完成博士学位，所以他与我们的水平足够接近，对我们的缓慢有一些同情心。另外，他似乎真的很喜欢教书。
Model model model. Eventually I'll be able to use that word without blushing. David certainly did. He looked as if he were pushing thirty, and had a curly mop of hair that he said his son's little league teammates pulled on, saying "Is this real?" He was exuberantly bright, talented, enthusiastic. He hadn't yet finished his Ph.D., so he was close enough to our level to have some compassion for our slowness. Plus, he really seemed to love to teach.
他的博士学位。会让他跻身玛丽告诉我的麻省理工学院的行列。这些人是少数才华横溢的人，他们的本科成绩足以进入麻省理工学院研究生院，然后通过博士资格考试，并成功通过博士论文答辩。足够好的本科成绩意味着几乎是全A，因为如果成绩再差，那么就没有其他地方的研究生（比如我）的位置了。
His Ph.D. would put him among the MIT-cubed ranks that Mary had told me about. These are the talented few whose undergraduate grades are good enough to get them into MIT grad school, who then pass the doctoral qualifying exams, and successfully defend their doctoral theses. Good enough undergraduate grades means almost straight A's, because if it meant any less there wouldn't be room for graduate students from anywhere else-like me.
大卫的博士学位 论文的目的是让一个小型水下机器人工作。一旦他完成了，它就能够在深埋的沉船残骸周围爬行，例如泰坦尼克号；捡起碎片；并将摄像机信息发送回水面船舶的控制室。
David's Ph.D. thesis was to make a little underwater robot work. Once he was done, it would be able to crawl around deeply buried shipwrecks, the Titanic, for example; pick up debris; and send video camera messages back up to the control room of the ship on the surface.
他继续他的演讲。“所以基本上，一旦你知道如何建模，你就可以建模任何东西。无论是机械、流体、热、化学、电气还是生物系统，建模的概念都是一样的。你们中的任何一个都做吗？有没有你正在做的事情的例子想让我回顾一下？”
He continued his lecture. "So basically once you know how to model things, you can model anything. It doesn't matter whether it's a mechanical, fluid, thermal, chemical, electrical, or biological system. The concepts of modeling are the same. Do any of you have any examples from what you're doing you'd like me to go over?"
神圣一石二鸟，蝙蝠侠。我举起了手。“我一直在研究这个问题，即如何对充满空气的气球进行建模。” 模型这个词很自然地从我嘴里脱口而出。
Holy kill two birds with one stone, Batman. I raised my hand. "I've been working on this one problem, how to model a balloon being filled up with air." The word model rolled off my tongue naturally.
大卫毫不犹豫地画出了我在三月份花了十天才想到的图画。他很快就建立了我一直试图在苹果电脑上编程的方程，并用二欧二三的说法表达了这个问题。与我的模型的唯一区别是，他给气球的表皮赋予了质量，并添加了他称之为阻尼器的东西。
Without missing a beat, David drew the picture that had taken me ten days to intuit in March. He quickly set up the equations I'd been trying to program on the Apple and expressed the problem in the parlance of two-oh-two-three. The only difference from my model was that he gave mass to the skin of the balloon and added something he called a dashpot.
“所以你的气球问题将是一个考虑从流体压力到气球外壳质量的能量流、气球外壳（弹簧）的弹性以及气球外壳的内摩擦力的问题。气球（缓冲器）。无论气球是膨胀还是收缩，缓冲器总是减慢物体的运动，”他总结道。“如果你在系统上放置一个反馈回路，比如说，当储气罐中的压力变化时，保持气球中的压力恒定，那么你就会遇到飞机增压系统设计者所面临的同样的问题。”
"And so your balloon problem will be a matter of accounting for the energy flow from the pressure of the fluid to the mass of the skin of the balloon, the elasticity of the skin of the balloon (the spring), and the internal friction of the balloon (the dashpot). The dashpot always slows down the motion of the mass, whether the balloon is expanding or contracting," he summarized. "If you put a feedback loop on the system, to, say, maintain a constant pressure in the balloon as the pressure in the tank varies, you'd have the same problem designers of airplane pressurization systems face."
所以学习吹气球是有原因的。
So there's a reason to learn to blow up a balloon.
6月22日
June 22
又到了另一场狗和小马表演的时间——研究赞助商会议。棕色和蓝色衣服的人从皮奥里亚、达文波特和哥伦布飞来，看看我们是否取得了任何进展。事实上，对他们来说每四个月来一次是个好主意，因为在这四个月的最后三周我们取得了很大的进步。
Time for another dog and pony show-a research sponsors' meeting. The men in brown and blue had flown in from Peoria, Davenport, and Columbus to see whether we'd made any progress. Actually, it was a good idea for them to come every four months because in the last three weeks of the four months we made a lot of progress.
“我们必须为会议取得一些结果，”切特在海伍德教授的期末考试结束后说道。它总是有一些东西。因此，我们竭尽全力更换 RCM 的组件。新的行驶气压罐已就位，我们已将其安装到位。新轴已经订购，我们知道在会议结束之前不可能对整台机器进行进一步的试验。然后目标就变成了在测试单元中完成尽可能多的其他硬件。
"We gotta get some results for the meeting," Chet had said just after Professor Heywood's final. It was always something. So we'd cranked to replace what we could of the components of the RCM. The new driving air pressure tank was in, and we had mounted it in place. The new shaft was on order, and we knew there was no hope of further trials of the whole machine until after the meeting. The target then became a matter of completing as much other hardware in the test cell as possible.
斯科特和我把机器分成前半部分和后半部分；他将在背面设计新启动机构的各个部件，而我将在机器正面设计燃油输送系统。
Scott and I had split up the machine into the front half and the back half; he would design the pieces of the new starting mechanism on the back, and I would design the fuel delivery system on the front of the machine.
然后是电子设备来对整个事情进行排序。这涉及组装黑色塑料盒和电子元件。我根据切特的设计将它们组合在一起，在金属板上钻孔，将板喷成战舰灰色，将电子元件拧到板上，并用电线和焊料将它们连接起来。这个过程让我明白，没有受过教育的人如何可以在装配线上工作并生产非常复杂的设备，而不知道他们在做什么。
And then there was the electronics to sequence the whole thing. This involved assembling black plastic boxes and electronic components. I put them together on the basis of Chet's designsI drilled holes into metal plates, spray-painted the plates battleship gray, screwed the electronic components onto the plates, and connected them with wires and solder. The process made me understand how uneducated people can work on assembly lines and produce very complex equipment without having any idea what they are doing.
在机器的前端，一个直接的目标是建造一个支架，将气缸固定到测试台上的金属槽上。这是一个为期两天的工作；尼克和我切割管道和板材，将其中一块板材安装在机器上，然后在该板材和试验台上的板材之间焊接四个斜切管道。然后我们把整个东西喷成银色。当我们完成后，它看起来多么好，就像《大众力学》中的东西一样，让我感到惊讶。
On the front end of the machine, one immediate goal was to construct a support to fix the cylinder to the metal slots on the test bed. It was a two-day job; Nick and I cut pipes and plates, set up one of the plates on the machine, and welded the four angle-cut pipes between that plate and the plate on the test bed. Then we spray-painted the whole thing silver. It amazed me how good it looked when we were done-like something in Popular Mechanics.
我的演讲是在咖啡和奶油奶酪丹麦休息之后进行的。我总结了我们发现的泄漏和我们组装的硬件。
My talk was just after the coffee and cream cheese Danish break. I summarized the leaks we'd detected and the hardware we'd assembled.
卡特彼勒公司的人说：“所以你告诉我们的是，这个东西还没有发挥作用。什么时候它才能发挥作用？我必须回去向我的副总裁报告，他有点坐立不安。你知道，随着罢工和其他事情的发生，钱变得有点短缺，我们可能不得不削减“
The guy from Caterpillar said, "So what you're telling us is the thing doesn't work yet. When is it going to work? I have to go back and report to my vice-president, and he's getting a little antsy. You know, what with the strike and everything, money's been getting a little scarce and we might have to cut the"
海伍德教授介入救援。“嗯，如你所知，这些事情确实需要时间。我们希望在暑假期间看到很多进展，那时我们所有人的课堂作业压力都会减轻，我相信到下一次会议时，我们将拥有所有组件可以运行并进行一两次试射。”
Professor Heywood stepped in to the rescue. "Well, as you know, these things do take time. We expect to see a lot of progress during the summer when the pressure of classwork is less for all of us, and I'm sure that by the next meeting we will have all the components operational and have a test firing or two."
谢谢您，教授。
Thank you, Professor.
那天下午参观实验室期间，卡特彼勒的那个人说他喜欢尼克和我建造的前支撑。为他工作可能会很有趣；要是他们不在皮奥里亚就好了。
During the lab tour that afternoon the guy from Caterpillar said he liked the front support Nick and I had built. It could be interesting to work for him; if only they weren't located in Peoria.
那天晚上午夜过后，办公室里只剩下我和安。
That night after midnight, An and I were the only ones left in our offices.
“怎么样了？” 我问他（过去式。
"How's it going?" I asked him.
“哦，还不错，”他说。“不过，它们可能会更好。我的医生说我必须停止‘蜡烛两头烧’的说法，但我没有太多选择。每天都待在这里直到凌晨 1:00，然后就走我妻子和孩子的家，然后 7:00 起床让孩子们准备上学，并在 8:00 之前回到实验室。到目前为止，我每周 7 天在这里工作了两年。”
"Oh, not too bad," he said. "They could be better, though. My doctor said I have to stop how do you say 'burning the candle from both ends,' but I don't have much choice. Every day it's stay here till 1:00 A.M., then go home to my wife and children, then up at 7:00 to get the children ready for school and back here at the lab by 8:00. Seven days a week I am here for two years so far. "
“好吧，当你晋升为将军、国防部长、总理之后，你就会知道这一切都是值得的，”我说。
"Well, after you work your way up to general and on to defense minister and on to premier, you'll know it was all worthwhile," I said.
“如果我幸运的话，也许我会成为一名将军。但剩下的就是政治，你知道，我的朋友，我们是工程师，我们不撒谎，而政治最适合撒谎的人。看看你们这些人是什么他对卡特做了。他是一个好人，甚至可能是一个好工程师，一个聪明的人，一个诚实的人，你们的国家向他吐口水，”他回答道。
"Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be a general. But the rest is politics, and you know, my friend, we are engineers, we do not lie, and politics is best suited for people who lie. Look what you people did to Carter. He was a good man, maybe even a good engineer, an intelligent man, an honest man, and your country spat on him," he answered.
他给了我一半的博洛尼亚三明治，我坐在他钢灰色办公桌对面的旧绿色诺加海德办公室扶手椅上。
He offered me half of his bologna sandwich and I sat down in the old green Naugahyde office armchair across from his steelgray desk.
“你睡得这么少怎么能过得去呢？” 我问他（过去式。
"How can you get by on so little sleep?" I asked him.
他回答说：“通常，当我在以色列值班时，我们的睡眠时间是四个小时。这完全取决于你的习惯。在那里我们有四个小时，所以不会减少到零小时。你要知道你们的托马斯·爱迪生从不睡觉；他只是每四到六个小时小睡十五分钟。但即使在睡眠时间很少的军队里，即使在战争期间，也没有什么比这个地方更难熬的了。六日战争虽然很艰难，但至少只有六天。有时我想知道我是否能活着离开这里。
He answered, "Typically when I am on duty in Israel we live on four hours sleep. It's all a matter of what you're used to. There we had four hours so it would not be much of a decrease to zero hours. You know your Thomas Edison never slept; he just took fifteen-minute catnaps every four or six hours. But even in the army with the few hours of sleep, even during the wars, nothing there is as hard as this place. The Six Day War was hard, but at least it was only six days. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm going to make it out of here alive."
“坚持住，”我说。“我相信你会做得很好。至少你有工作的天赋和能力。我经常想知道我是否具备这两点。”
"Hang in there," I said. "I'm sure you'll do fine. At least you've got the talent and the ability to work. I often wonder whether I have either."
“天赋是一种天赋，我的朋友。而工作能力，如果你能在这里待得足够长，那就是你获得的东西。你会变得像尼希米一样，一手拿着剑，另一只手拿着铲子，什么也没有会让你从工作中垮下来。”
"Talent is a gift, my friend. And the ability to work, if you can stay here long enough, that is something you acquire. You become like Nehemiah, with a sword in one hand and a shovel in the other hand, and nothing is able to bring you down from your work."
7月10日
July 10
切特、韦斯特和我开车前往位于哈特福德的联合技术研发中心去取喷油器。在柴油发动机中，活塞压缩气缸中的空气，并加热空气，就像自行车打气筒一样。压缩结束时，喷油器将燃油喷入气缸；然后燃料蒸发并自燃。
Chet, West, and I drove to United Technologies Research and Development Center in Hartford to pick up the fuel injector. In diesel engines, the piston compresses the air in the cylinder, and it heats up the air, just as a bicycle pump does. At the end of the compression, the fuel injector squirts fuel into the cylinder; the fuel then vaporizes and spontaneously ignites.
在研发中心，那些拥有博士学位的人有自己的小办公室，里面有煤渣砖墙和钢灰色桌子，就像我在研究所的那样。不过，与我的办公室不同的是，他们有窗户，即使你打不开窗户，这也是一个很好的感觉。他们的办公室围绕着猪圈，所有的下属——无论是新来的还是刚刚拿到硕士学位的人——都在整齐排列的电脑终端和绘图桌前工作。我突然想到，如果美国工业界想要更好的工程师，为什么不给他们更好的工作条件呢？然后，最聪明的人可能会决定不去商学院或法学院以获得私人办公室和体面的薪水。
At the R & D center, the guys with Ph.D.'s had their own little offices with cinderblock walls and steel-gray desks like the one I had at the institute. Unlike my office, though, they had windows, which were a nice touch even if you couldn't open them. Their offices encircled the pigpens, where all the underlings-the newcomers or guys with just master's degrees-worked at computer terminals and drafting tables arranged in neat rows. If American industry wants better engineers, it occurred to me, why don't they give them better working conditions? Then the brightest ones might decide against going to business school or law school to get a private office and a decent salary.
韦斯特现在几乎完全退出了舞台。他的公司正在获得能源部的资助，以编写一份将放在某人书架上的报告。但他在 UTC 的一个朋友有一个备用的 EFIS 喷油器。这就是我们用于实验的东西。
West was nearly totally out of the picture now; his company was rolling along with a grant from the Department of Energy for a report that would sit on somebody's shelf. But he had a buddy at UTC who had a spare EFIS fuel injector. That was what we would use for our experiments.
EFIS 代表电子燃油喷射系统，由 UTC 开发，旨在提高油箱性能。唯一的问题是，就像为军队开发的许多其他东西一样，它在研究实验室中运行得很好，但当技术含量低但可靠的俄罗斯坦克冲向布列塔尼时，它太复杂了，无法在实地发挥作用。
EFIS stands for electronic fuel injection system, which was developed by UTC to improve tank performance. The only problem was that, like many other things developed for the army, it worked great in the research lab but was too complicated to work well in the field when the low-tech-but-reliable Russian tanks stormed toward Brittany.
不过，它很适合我们的目的，因为在 RCM 中，喷油器每次实验只需点火一次。EFIS 可以比任何标准喷油器更好地做到这一点。
It would suit our purposes well, though, because in the RCM, the fuel injector only had to fire once per experiment. And the EFIS could do this better than any standard fuel injector.
切特、韦斯特和我去了大楼后面的车间。这让我想起了斯隆实验室。我们来到一旁安静的、玻璃封闭的办公室，见到了工头。他拿起电话，通过公共广播系统说道：“乔治·布伦特到办公室。乔治·布伦特到办公室。” 工头没有提供更多信息，乔治·布伦特从广播里的语气中得知，现在是解雇通知书的时间。
Chet, West, and I went to the workshop in the back of the building. It reminded me of the Sloan Lab. We went to the quiet, glass-enclosed office on the side and met the foreman. He picked up the telephone and said over the PA system, "George Brent to the office. George Brent to the office." The foreman gave no further information, and for all George Brent knew from the tone of voice on the PA, it was pink slip time.
“乔治，这些先生来自麻省理工学院，我们需要为他们安装 EFIS 注射器，以便他们正在进行一些研究。我希望你能帮助他们，”工头说。
"George, these gentlemen here are from MIT, and we need to set them up with an EFIS injector for some research they're doing. I'd like you to help them out," the foreman said.
“我很乐意，先生，”乔治说。乔治是一位友善的中年机械师，花白的头发在脑后抹着油，穿着黑鞋和白袜子。他让我想起电视节目“莱利的一生”中的莱利。他很像尼克，但更年轻。
"I'd be happy to, sir," George said. George was a friendly, middle-aged mechanic, with graying hair greased back, black shoes, and white socks; he reminded me of Riley in the "Life of Riley" TV show. He was like Nick, but younger.
乔治带我们参观了他在实验室工作台上安装的 EFIS 注射器。“看，这里有一个螺线管；这只是一个用电磁体操作的阀门。所以你要做的就是切断磁铁的电源，然后阀门打开，燃油从喷油器尖端的小孔中流出”。
George took us to the EFIS injector he'd set up on the lab bench. "See, it's got a solenoid here; that's just a valve that operates with an electromagnet. So what you do is cut the power to the magnet and then the valve opens and the fuel goes out of the tiny holes in the tip of the injector."
他按下开关，一团闻起来像柴油的白色小云从喷油器尖端喷出。
He flipped a switch and a small white cloud that smelled like diesel fuel burst out from the tip of the injector.
乔治继续他的解释，“你知道，我们如何建造这些东西很有趣。我们制造所有部件，主要是杆和杆所安装的圆柱体，然后我们给工厂里的一些女士一盒杆和一个气缸盒。他们取出杆并在气缸中进行测试；他们可以通过手指的感觉来判断尺寸是否正确。这比将零件加工到千分之一英寸的公差要便宜得多。 ”
George continued his explanation, "You know, it's interesting how we build these things. We make all the pieces, mostly rods and cylinders that the rods fit in, and then we give some of the ladies in the plant a box of rods and a box of cylinders. They take the rods and test them in the cylinders; they can tell by the feel in their fingers whether or not the dimensions are correct. It's a lot cheaper than machining the parts to a ten-thousandth of an inch tolerance."
高科技。
High technology.
任何人都可以有好主意，即使是一个愚蠢的人。我的好主意是问乔治是否有 EFIS 的备用部件，以及我们来取的完整装置。我没有任何真正的理由要这些垃圾作品；如果我手边有它们，我似乎就能弄清楚这东西是如何工作的。我可以玩表演和讲述的游戏。我自己。
Anybody can have a good idea, even a stupid person. My good idea was to ask George whether he had any spare pieces of the EFIS, together with the complete unit that we'd come to pick up. I didn't have any real reason to ask for the junk pieces; it just seemed that I might be able to figure out how the thing worked if I had them handy. I could play show-and-tell. By myself.
从马萨诸塞州西部回来的路上，我坐在后座上睡了一会儿，切特和韦斯特在前面聊天。
On the drive back from western Mass., I sat in the backseat and slept some while Chet and West talked in the front.
“你咨询一下吗？” 韦斯特直截了当地问切特。
"Do you consult?" West asked Chet bluntly.
“是的，有一点。我为资助我论文的人做一些兼职工作，”切特回答道。切特似乎并不关心钱。他更热衷于科学及其理论。他将追随海伍德的脚步。
"Yeah, a little bit. I do some work on the side for the people who funded my thesis," Chet answered. Chet didn't seem to care about money. He was more into the science and the theory of it; he would follow in Heywood's footsteps.
“你们的账单费率是多少？”
"What's your billing rate?"
“一小时五十块钱。”
"Fifty dollars an hour."
“他们一定在嘲笑你，朋友，”韦斯特笑着说。“如果我是你，我至少会花一百块。他们会付钱的；他们有钱。”
"They must be laughing at you, pal," West chuckled. "If I were you I'd go for at least a hundred. They'll pay it; they've got the bucks."
在 128 号公路的收费站，一辆平板卡车停在我们旁边。其货物是损毁的汽车，外部金属板被剥落；关节和骨髓都裸露着。车轴上有一个弹簧，还有一个缓冲器——减震器。底盘看起来像一个质量，就像大卫·米勒的班级一样。
At the tollbooth at Route 128 a flatbed truck pulled up beside us. Its cargo was wrecked cars with the exterior sheet metal stripped off; the joints and marrow were bare. There was a spring on an axle, and a dashpot-the shock absorber. The chassis looked like a mass, just like in David Miller's class.
7月15日
July 15
在自助洗衣店，我思考旋转循环应该运行多少电机来拧干衣服上的水分，以及旋转循环能量与烘干机的热能如何比较。旋转时间和烘干时间的哪种组合可以使总能源消耗最少？
At the laundromat I pondered how much the spin cycle should run its motor to wring the moisture from my clothes, and how the spin cycle energy compares with the dryer's heat energy. What combination of spin time and dryer time would result in the least total energy use?
我捡起了有人留在下一个烘干机上的海蓝宝石平装本。封底是一张男人和一个男孩站在摩托车旁边的照片。
I picked up the aquamarine paperback that somebody'd left on the next dryer. The back cover was a picture of a man and a boy standing next to a motorcycle.
有两句话脱颖而出。第一个说：“科学方法的步骤是：（1）问题的陈述；（2）关于问题原因的假设；（3）旨在检验每个假设的实验；（4）预测结果实验；(5) 观察到的实验结果；(6) 实验结果得出的结论。第二个是这样的：“一个实验永远不会仅仅因为它未能达到预期结果而失败。只有当它也未能充分检验所讨论的假设，当它产生的数据不能证明正确时，实验才是失败的。”任何事情都以这样或那样的方式。”
Two sentences stood out. The first said, "The steps in the scientific method are: (1) statement of the problem; (2) hypotheses as to the cause of the problem; (3) experiments designed to test each hypothesis; (4) predicted results of the experiments; (5) observed results of the experiments; and (6) conclusions from the result of the experiments." The second was like unto it: "An experiment is never a failure solely because it fails to achieve predicted results. An experiment is a failure only when it also fails adequately to test the hypothesis in question, when the data it produces don't prove anything one way or another."
这些陈述明确地总结了切特、韦斯特和海伍德教授含蓄地试图告诉我的内容。我们测试了机器，看看它是否可以承受更高的压力。答案是否定的，结论是重建机器的部件。斯科特和他的计算机模型将预测实验结果。我们会做实验，我会分析数据，然后他会得出结论，他的计算机模型需要进行哪些更改。
The statements explicitly summed up what Chet, West, and Professor Heywood had implicitly tried to tell me. We had tested the machine to see whether it could take the higher pressure. The answer was no, and the conclusion was to rebuild parts of the machine. Scott and his computer modeling would predict results of the experiments. We would do the experiments, I would analyze the data, and he would conclude what changes were required in his computer model.
这本书是《禅与摩托车维修艺术》。
The book was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
8月12日
August 12
我得了 A。大卫给了我 A。
I got an A. David gave me an A.
我想知道他是否给每个人都打了“A”，因为谁知道呢，有一天，其中一位海军可能会审查他的拨款申请。
I wondered whether he gave everybody A's, because, who knows, one of the navy guys might review a grant application of his some day.
距离我的格林未完成成绩还剩三周，我将成为一名出租车司机。
There were three weeks left before my Incomplete with Greene would become an F and I would be driving a cab.
事实上，八月很凉爽，而且不是典型的潮湿天气，这使得呆在配有电脑终端的空调房间里很愉快，但这并没有让事情变得更容易。如果不是实验室和大卫班级的要求，我可能会在夏初的一两周内取消这个项目。
The fact that August was cool and not its typical humid self, which makes it pleasant to be in an air-conditioned room with a computer terminal, didn't make things any easier. If it hadn't been for the demands of the lab and David's class I probably could have knocked the project off in a week or two at the beginning of the summer.
我记得格林的作业：用实际参数对不可压缩气球填充问题进行编程；例如，典型的气球体积可能为 100 立方英寸，气球内部的压力可能为 2 或 3 psi，典型的拉伸度（弹性）可能接近细橡皮筋的拉伸度。我查看了我的方程组——我的模型。
I remembered Greene's assignment: program the incompressible balloon-filling problem with realistic parameters; for example, a typical balloon volume might be 100 cubic inches, pressure on the inside of the balloon might be 2 or 3 psi, and a typical stretchiness (elasticity) might be close to that of a skinny rubber band. I looked at my set-up of the equations-my model.
杀手是平方项。如果它是一个常微分方程，那么随着时间的推移求解将是小菜一碟。如何处理平方项？
The killer is the square term. If it were an ordinary differential equation, marching through time with the solution would be a piece of cake. How to deal with the square term?
解决方案。又去图书馆了。某个地方的某个人肯定曾为此而用头猛击过。也许连伯努利本人也试图通过美第奇或斯福尔扎基金会的后续资助来解决此类方程。
Solution. Go to the library again. Somebody somewhere sometime must have bashed his head up against this. Maybe even Bernoulli himself tried to solve this type of equation as a followon grant from the Medici or Sforza Foundation.
我可以请切特给我一个提示，但那是作弊。但去图书馆并不是作弊。如果碰巧有人已经这样做了，我将成为一个自由人。我穿过 4 号楼四楼的一个大厅，里面挂着蝙蝠和体操运动员的照片，还有一颗子弹穿过钻石，然后到达巴克工程图书馆。在查看卡片目录之前，我读了一些有趣的文章和体育节目，在一张柔软舒适的皮椅上小睡了一会儿，并检查了我从七年级以来就一直关注的股票的价格。我没有持有任何股票，但它的表现非常好。
I could ask Chet to give me a hint, but that would be cheating. But going to the library is not cheating. If by chance someone has already done this I'll be a free man. I went via a hall on the fourth floor of Building 4 with photographs of bats and gymnasts and a bullet going through a jack of diamonds, and on up to Barker Engineering Library. Before going to the card catalog I read the funnies and the sports, took a nap in one of the soft, cushy, leather chairs, and checked the price of the stock I'd been following since seventh grade. I didn't own any of the stock but it had done very well.
卡片目录很紧凑；所有这些都可以容纳在几台洗衣机的空间内。比人文图书馆的卡片目录还要小。
The card catalog was compact; it all fit within the space of several washing machines. It was smaller than the card catalog in the humanities library.
好的。让我们从“气球”开始。也许有人写过一篇论文或写过一本关于它的书。让我们来看看。弹道导弹；弹道学，外部；我们开始吧：气球。
Okay. Let's start with "balloon." Maybe someone's done a thesis or written a book about it. Let's see. Ballistic missiles; ballistics, exterior; here we go: balloon.
“主动脉内球囊膨胀的二维模型。” “闭塞性充盈问题——参见心脏。” “气球在限制性流体环境中的行为。” 所有这些报道都在谈论心灵。我不在乎人心；我需要了解真正的气球。
"A 2-Dimensional Model for the Inflation of a Limp Intra- aortic Balloon." "The Occlusive Filling Problem-see Heart." "Balloon Behavior in Restrictive Fluid Environments." All these reports are talking about hearts. I don't care about hearts; I need to know about real balloons.
下一步。也许是在一本热书中。查看 T.“热污染”下方。“热核装置。” “热力学。” 这是一篇有趣的文章：“对热动力和用于开发这种动力的机器的思考”，作者：卡诺。卡诺就是人们津津乐道的十九世纪法国人吉夫托普洛斯。尽管电气工程第六课双E现在是学院的热门话题，但如果没有像卡诺和迪塞尔这样的机甲E，他们让轴转动发电机，双E就无处可去。大多数热书都有相同的呼号，所以我会在书库的那部分扎营。
Next step. Maybe it's in a thermo book. Look under T. "Thermal Pollution." "Thermonuclear Devices." "Thermodynamics." Here's an interesting one: "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat and on Machines Fitted to Develop This Power," by Carnot. Carnot was the nineteenth-century Frenchman Gyftopoulos always talked about. Even though Electrical Engineering, Course Six, double E, is the hot topic at the institute now, the double E's would be nowhere if it weren't for the mech E's like Carnot and Diesel, who made the shafts turn the generators. Most of the thermo books had the same call letters so I'd camp out in that section of the stacks.
气球问题涉及“非线性微分方程”，所以我还写下了该部分的呼号。为了更好地衡量，我查阅了“流体力学”。到了七楼。
The balloon problem involves "Differential Equations, Nonlinear," so I also wrote down the call letters for that section. And just for good measure, I looked up "Fluid Mechanics." On to the seventh floor.
巴克的形状像一个大甜甜圈。甜甜圈洞是中心的圆顶空间，您可以在那里阅读喜剧并睡在皮椅上。炸面团是堆垛内缘的大半径圆形走廊。您可以走完一圈，几乎感觉不到自己在转弯，并最终回到起点。但如果你保持警惕，你在每一圈结束时都会有所不同。
Barker is shaped like a big doughnut. The doughnut hole is the domed space in the center where you read the funnies and sleep in the leather chairs. The fried dough is the large-radius circular hallway on the inner edge of the stacks. You can walk the loop, almost not perceiving that you're turning, and end up where you started. But if you're alert you're different at the end of every lap.
微分方程和数值分析技术书籍毫无用处。它们都是一堆毫无生气的希腊字母（例如 sigma）和下标（例如 i）。我记得比利时的科尔曼教授告诉我，“数学家用一两百个逻辑或代数步骤写出一个非常长且复杂的问题解决方案。然后他或她将其浓缩成数学的速记，其中包含所有内容。”其希腊字母、下标和上标，并以其他人无法理解的形式出版。” 这就是为什么我既不是数学家也不是物理学家。
Differential equations and numerical analysis techniques books were useless. They all were a bunch of lifeless Greek letters like sigma and subscripts like i. I remembered Professor Kollman in Belgium telling me that a "mathematician writes out an extremely long and complicated solution to a problem, with, say, one or two hundred logical or algebraic steps. Then he or she condenses it into the shorthand of mathematics with all its Greek letters and subscripts and superscripts, and publishes it in a form that no one else can understand." That was why I was neither a mathematician nor a physicist.
在甜甜圈中，我感觉自己正在与伯努利和牛顿进行同样的心理马拉松。好吧，他们的英里时间不到五分钟，我的英里时间超过十分钟，但这仍然是同一场比赛。人群是一样的，痛苦是一样的，也许我们所有人都会到达终点线。我有图书馆的优势，而且前面挤满了人。
In the doughnut I felt I was in the same mental marathon with Bernoulli and Newton. OK, their mile times are under five minutes and mine are over ten minutes, but it's still the same race. The crowd is the same and the pain is the same and maybe all of us will make it to the finish line. I had the advantage of a library and packed ground before me.
下一站。流体文本。又没用了。许多内容看起来就像数学课本一样晦涩难懂——有很多下标。
Next stop. Fluids texts. Useless again. Many looked as obscure as the mathematics texts-lots of subscripts.
终点站。热。同上，除了一篇文章：《实用热力学》，在英国出版。它没有解决问题，但它有一个接近的问题。一个例子指出，“工业中的一个常见问题是从另一个容器填充一个小罐，其中假设较大容器的压力不会因该过程而变化。从液体或气体管道中取出流体是一个真正的问题。 -这种过程的世界范例。” 所以当格林给我这个问题时他知道他在做什么。
Last stop. Thermo. Ditto except for one text: "Practical Thermodynamics," published in England. It didn't solve the problem, but it had one that was close. One example stated, "A common problem in industry is filling a small tank from another vessel in which the pressure of the larger vessel is assumed not to vary as a result of the process. Tapping fluid off a pipeline of liquid or gas is a real-world example of such a process." So Greene knew what he was doing when he gave me this problem.
除此之外，图书馆是一条死胡同，但我仍然学到了东西。每个领域的教科书在其索引部分都有几乎相同的条目。呈现顺序各不相同，但在特定领域内，每本书都或多或少地讲了相同的内容。知识集是有限的、可管理的。这就是巴克卡片目录如此之小的原因。
Other than that the library was a dead end, but I still learned. Each field's textbooks had nearly identical entries in their index sections. The presentation order varied, but within a given field each book said more or less the same thing. The set of knowledge is finite, manageable. That's why the Barker card catalog is so small.
那天晚上我的自行车轮胎瘪了，所以我乘公共汽车回到奥尔斯顿。我记下了笔记，记录了我浏览图书馆时想到的想法。
My bicycle tire was flat that evening so I took the bus home to Allston. I jotted notes, thoughts that had come to me while I looked through the library.
我回顾了方程：
I reviewed the equations:
气球壳上的力平衡；流入气球的伯努利方程；从储罐到气球的流动连续性。
The force balance on the balloon shell; Bernoulli's equation for the flow into the balloon; Flow continuity from the tank to the balloon.
正如格林所建议的那样，我检查了问题的常数。这些将在分析中进行，稍后它们可能会有所不同。现在的技巧是让方程流畅起来。
I checked off the problem's constants, as Greene had suggested. These will go along for the ride in the analysis, and later on they can vary. The trick now is to make the equations flow.
思考。如果我可以解出气球蒙皮的速度方程（“dx x dt，或 xdot”），我可以将 d x dt 乘以一点 dt，然后找到蒙皮的新位置。在我平衡气压与气球弹性的方程中，新的蒙皮位置将给我一个新的气球压力，这反过来会给我一个新的蒙皮速度，这又会给我一个新的蒙皮位置，这将给我一个新的蒙皮位置。反过来给我一个新的气球压力，等等，等等，直到气球破裂或气球中的压力等于罐中的压力。
Think. If I can solve my equation for the speed ("dx by dt, or xdot") of the skin of the balloon, I can multiply that d by dt by a little dt and find a new position of the skin. In my equation that balances the air pressure force with the balloon elasticity, a new skin position will give me a new balloon pressure, which will in turn give me a new skin speed, which will in turn give me a new skin position, which will in turn give me a new balloon pressure, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, until the balloon breaks or the pressure in the balloon equals the pressure in the tank.
在新生微积分中，诀窍是将长而弯曲的线变成短而直的线。我想使用时间的一小部分来绘制 x（气球位置）与 t（时间）的关系图。
In freshman calculus the trick was to take long, curvy lines and make them into short, straight lines. I want to graph x, the balloon position, versus t, time, using little slices of time.
我重新画了我记得的微积分图。
I redrew the picture I remembered from calculus.
我可以称 NextX = x 加 dx/dt * dt。
I could call NextX = x plus dx/dt * dt.
是时候写软件了。
Time to write the software.
苹果手册解释了“for”和“next”循环。这是计算机如何“重复”解决问题的核心。
The Apple handbook explained a "for" and "next" loop. This is the heart of how a computer solves things "repeatedly."
我将创建一个索引，称之为 I，它是 t 时间的替代品。时间只是图表上的一个占位符、一个参考标记、一个散列标记。如果有更多就好了。
I'll create an index, call it I, that's a substitute for t, time. Time is just a place holder, a reference mark, a hash mark on a graph. If only there were more of it.
我会说“for I = 1 to 100”，就好像我想跟踪气球 100 个 1 秒的间隔。在每一秒开始时，我都会计算气球壳的速度。我将该速度乘以 1 秒，即可得出气球在那一秒内飞了多远。这将为我提供下一个职位。我现在可以尝到解决方案了。
I'll say "for I = 1 to 100," as if I want to track the balloon for 100 1-second intervals. At the beginning of each second, I'll calculate the speed of the shell of the balloon. I'll multiply that speed by 1 second to find how far the balloon goes in that second. That will give me the next position. I can taste the solution now.
最后一个问题。我如何告诉计算机我希望时间增量始终为 1。如果我在第二个数字 43，我如何知道乘以 1 而不是 43？一定有窍门。
One last problem. How do I tell the computer that I want the time increment always to be 1. If I'm at second number 43, how do I know to multiply by 1 and not 43? There's got to be a trick.
有一个技巧。在每个步骤中，定义最后一个步骤。例如，如果我处于第 43 步，则最后一步将为 42。步长大小始终为 1。在程序中，我将最后一步称为“最后！” （计算机术语中的“最后一个我”），程序将从最后一个开始！等于零。我将通过编程计算气球压力、膨胀速度以及气球的新尺寸 (x)
There is a trick. At each step, define a last step. For example, if I'm at step 43, the last step will be 42. The step size will always be one. In the program I'll call the last step "last!" (computerese for "last I"), and the program will start with last! equal to zero. I'll calculate the balloon pressure, the speed of expansion, and the new size of the balloon (x) by programming
然后我会让当前的 I (1) 等于最后一个 I，所以当我继续下一个 1 (2) 时，我会通过从当前 1 (2) 中减去最后一个 I (1) 得到 1 。Apple 的计划将是：
Then I'll make the present I (1) equal to the last I, so when I go on to the next 1 (2), I'll get 1 by subtracting the last I (1) from the present 1 (2). The program for the Apple will be:
就是这么简单。我怎么花了这么长时间才找到解决方案？
It's so simple. How did it take so long for me to arrive at the solution?
我向公共汽车的窗外望去。我在车上行驶了三英里，过了车站，车在沃特敦广场掉头。空间和时间都在思想中崩溃了。
I looked out the window of the bus. I'd stayed on it for three miles past my stop, and it was turning around at Watertown Square. Space and time had collapsed in thought.
8月25日
August 25
我向 Greene 展示了我的解决方案，他说：“没关系。如果你现在停下来，我会给你 B。不过，如果你想要 A，我会再给你一周的时间，你可以更改模型以适应气球的表皮有质量的情况。”
I showed my solution to Greene and he said, "That's fine. I'll give you a B if you stop now. If you want an A, though, I'll give you another week, and you can change the model to accommodate the case where the skin of the balloon has mass."
没问题。我对程序做了一点改动，四天后把解决方案留在了他的桌子上。
No problemo. I made a slight change to the program and left the solution on his desk four days later.
9 月 2 日
September 2
我在研究所周围穿着我的，或者更确切地说是唐的实验室夹克。这让我感觉自己是这个地方的一部分。新来者惊恐的面孔进一步增强了我的信心。我冲上楼梯，来到格林的办公室领取我的 A。
I wore my, or rather Don's, lab jacket around the institute. It made me feel a part of the place. The scared faces of the newcomers further fed my confidence. I bolted up the stairs to Greene's office to receive my A.
格林的秘书体重增加了三十磅，也许四十磅，她来回摆动秒表，防止自己跑到六号楼的机器前去买一包骆驼。
Greene's secretary had put on thirty, maybe forty pounds, and she bobbed a stopwatch on a string back and forth to prevent herself from running down to the machine in Building 6 to get a pack of Camels.
她拿出了我的文件。“你得了 B，”她说。
She pulled out my file. "You got a B," she said.
那条蛇。我做了额外的工作，但他还是给了我 B。如果他给我一个 A，那么 A 就会抵消我第一学期的平均绩点 (GPA) 中的一个 C。我不在乎他有多少高层联系人。我们达成了一项协议，但他却退出了。
That snake. I did the extra work and he gave me a B anyway. If he'd given me an A, the A would have canceled out one of the C's from the first term on my grade point average (GPA). I don't care how many high-level contacts he has. We made a deal and he was backing out of it.
“他现在在吗？” 我问。
"Is he in now?" I asked.
“是啊，你想见他吗？”
"Yes, would you like to see him?"
“是的。马上。”
"Yes. Right away."
我进去了。他戴着眼镜坐在办公桌前，阅读美国工程院的一次会议记录。他站起来向我打招呼。
I went in. He was sitting at his desk, glasses on, reading proceedings from a meeting of the National Academy of Engineering. He stood up to greet me.
“你为什么给我一个B？我以为我们已经达成协议了。”
"Why'd you give me a B? I thought we had an agreement."
我们都一动不动地站在他办公桌的两侧。
We both stood still, on opposite sides of his desk.
“是的，我们做到了，但最终，尽管你付出了很大的努力来解决问题的额外部分，你提交的文章，好吧，它只是没有达到我所能做到的完美程度。 “良心称其为‘A’工作。我可以让你看看我给出的一些学期项目的副本，我认为你会同意的。”
"Yes, we did, but in the end, even though you made a good effort at solving the additional piece of the problem, the write-up you submitted, well, it just didn't have the polish of what I could in good conscience call 'A' work. I could let you look at copies of some term projects I've given A's on, and I think you'd agree."
“但是你为什么不告诉我，给我一个机会做更多的工作来解决这个问题？”
"But why didn't you tell me, give me a chance to do more work, to fix it?"
“好吧，有时候你只需要关闭一个项目的账簿。你已经完成了很好的工作，只是不是 A 工作。我确信仅仅一个 B 不会让你的平均成绩下降那么多， “ 他说。他肯定以为我大部分都是A。他以一种令人费解的方式给了我一张信任票。
"Well, there comes a time when you just have to close the books on a project. You've done good work, just not A work. I'm sure just one B won't bring your grade point average down that much," he said. He must have thought I had mostly A's. In a convoluted way he'd just given me a vote of confidence.
“是的，好吧，这也没有多大帮助。也许你是对的。是时候减少我的损失并继续前进了。”
"Yeah, well, it won't help that much either. Maybe you're right. It's time to cut my losses and press on."
我已经过了试用期了
I'm off probation.
我属于这里。
I belong here.
章节
C H A P T E R
11
11
西格玛德尔塔
Sigma Delta
日程：
Schedule:
82 年秋季：2.70 设计概论（威尔逊）
Fall '82: 2.70 Introduction to Design (Wilson)
2.14 反馈控制系统（布鲁克斯）
2.14 Feedback Control Systems (Brooks)
2.996 论文
2.996 Thesis
9 月 3 日
September 3
“这是白胡椒吗？” 电话那头的声音说道。“我是从学生事务主任办公室打来的。高级宿舍刚刚出现了一名导师的空缺。您有兴趣面试一下舍监吗？”
"Is this Pepper White?" the voice at the other end of the phone said. "I'm calling from the Dean of Student Affairs' office. An opening for a tutor has just come up, at Senior House. Would you be interested in interviewing with the housemaster?"
“当然可以。我需要做什么？”
"Sure. What do I have to do?"
“给高级学院的多尔西教授打电话就可以了；他的电话号码在电话簿里。你可以和他预约。”
"Just call Professor Dorsey at Senior House; his number's in the directory. You can set up an appointment with him."
是的，宝贝。也许毕竟有机会担任导师职位。麻省理工学院的导师是州立学校所说的“RA”（Residence Assistant的缩写），而哈佛则称之为“House Fellow”，因为哈佛喜欢给人们起一个听起来很重要的名字。
Yeah baby. Maybe there's a chance for a tutor position after all. A tutor at MIT is what state schools call an R.A., short for resident assistant, and what Harvard calls a house fellow, because Harvard likes to give important sounding names to people.
在春天骑自行车的间隙，我申请了几个本科生宿舍的导师职位：麦格雷戈，那里的导师套房可以欣赏到波士顿价值数百万美元的景色；在麦考密克，原教旨主义家庭将女儿送到这里的全女性宿舍（“嘿，也许他们的男朋友需要咨询，”我对舍监说）；在贝克斯利，从 7 号楼穿过马萨诸塞大街的酸性岩石宿舍。有传言称，在贝克斯利，化学专业的学生合成了自己的迷幻药，而联邦调查局正渴望破获。在贝克斯利，我进入了第一轮导师淘汰赛。
In the springtime between bicycle rides I'd applied for tutor positions at several undergraduate dormitories: at MacGregor, where the tutor suites have million-dollar views of Boston; at McCormick, the all-women dorm where the fundamentalist families send their daughters ("Hey, maybe their boyfriends need counseling," I said to the housemaster); and at Bexley, the acid rock dorm across Mass. Ave. from Building 7. At Bexley, rumor had it, the chem majors synthesized their own LSD, and the FBI was just aching to make a bust. At Bexley, I made it to the first round of tutor elimination.
4 月 1 日
April 1
面试由坐在舍监雅各布·利维教授和夫人客厅周围的十二名导师候选人组成。如果其他十一位候选人像我一样想的话，如果其他十一位候选人在马萨诸塞大街人行横道上被一辆自卸卡车碾过，没有一个候选人会感到非常失望。一百名贝克斯利派中约有三十人提出了一般性问题。作为候选人，我们的工作就是顺利、熟练地在我们自己选择的适当时间回答问题。
The interview consisted of the twelve tutor candidates sitting around the living room of the housemasters, Professor and Mrs. Jacob Levy. None of the candidates, if they thought like me, would be very disappointed if the other eleven were run over by a dumptruck at the Mass Ave. crosswalk. About thirty of the one hundred Bexleyites asked general questions. Our job as candidates was smoothly, deftly, to answer a question at an appropriate time of our own choosing.
穿着齐柏林飞艇 T 恤的孩子提出了这样的问题：“那么，如果我经历了一次糟糕的迷幻之旅，如果你发现了我，你会怎么做？”
The kid wearing the Led Zeppelin T-shirt posed the question, "So, like, if I were on a bad acid trip, like, and if you found me, like, what would you do?"
这似乎是我发声的最佳时机。“好吧，你的事就是你的事；我的意思是，如果你想把你的天才大脑炸出来，那就去吧。我会叫救护车，把你送到医院，在那里他们可以照顾你，也许会把你的胃抽出来，并防止你伤害自己。至于我自己，我已经八年没有服用过阿司匹林了，而且我一直相当健康和快乐。”
It seemed as good a time as any for me to speak up. "Well, your business is your business; I mean if you want to fry your highly gifted brain out, go ahead. I'll call an ambulance and get you to a hospital where they can take care of you, maybe pump your stomach out, and keep you from hurting yourself. As for myself, I haven't taken so much as an aspirin for about eight years, and I've been fairly healthy and happy."
蜂鸣器声音。错误的答案。
Buzzer sound. Wrong answer.
坐在我旁边的生物化学专业的学生，留着长发、胡须和小胡子，离我的目标更近一些。
The biochem major sitting next to me, with longish hair, beard, and mustache, hit the mark a little closer.
“嗯，各种消遣性药剂我都试过了，还有一本笔记本，里面全是配方，或许对你们有用，呵呵。至于迷幻药那场戏，我倒是愿意。”就像我曾经对我的一个朋友那样说服你。我会说，‘没关系，你来到跑道上，你不会摔倒和流浪的，伙计，放轻松点坚持下去，很好，很顺利，我们会把你弄下来，就这样，我们走吧，没关系。” 我会说类似的话，直到你放下为止。”
"Well, I've done about every kind of recreational pharmaceutical there is, and I've got a notebook full of recipes, which might come in handy for you guys, heh heh. As far as the acid trip scene, I'd like talk you down like I once did for a friend of mine. I'd say something like, 'It's OK, you're coming to the runway, you're not going to crash and bum, man, just go easy with the stick, nice and smooth, we'll get you down, that's it here we go it's all right.' I'd say something like that until you came down off it."
蜂鸣器声音。正确答案。
Buzzer sound. Right answer.
9月3日又来了
September 3 again
我和多尔西教授的约会是在七点，我沿着风景优美的路线从马萨诸塞州查尔斯大道前往高级学院。傍晚阳光下的帆船和背景中波士顿天际线的真实世界让我回想起那一年以前，当我还是一个科技婴儿时。我已经好起来了；我就知道。现在，如果我能说服自己成为一名家庭教师，我就能还清债务了。
My appointment with Professor Dorsey was at seven and I took the scenic route to Senior House-down the Charles from Mass. Ave. The sailboats in the late evening sun and the real world of Boston's skyline in the background made me think back to the year before, when I was a technological infant. I'd gotten better; I knew it. Now if I could just talk my way into being a tutor I'd be able to pay my debts.
空气中有一丝寒意，这让我想起了布鲁塞尔的秋天，还有斯蒂芬妮。自十二月以来我就没有再打电话或写信，她也没有。布鲁日桥下的水。我想知道她是否已经找到了别人。
There was a little chill in the air, and it made me remember the fall in Brussels, and Stephanie. I hadn't called or written since December, and neither had she. Water under the bridge in Bruges. I wondered whether she'd found someone else.
老宅的基石上刻着“1917”字样。1917 年，我母亲的父亲穿过佛兰德斯前往巴黎。穿过 L 形宿舍和格雷总统后院围墙包围的庭院的玻璃入口，吉米·亨德里克斯用四楼窗户外的扬声器大声播放着《紫雾》。
Into Senior House's cornerstone was chiseled "1917." In 1917 my mother's father marched across Flanders to Paris. Past the glass entryway to the courtyard enveloped by the L-shaped dormitory and the wall of President Gray's backyard, Jimi Hendrix played "Purple Haze" loudly on speakers pointed out of a fourth-floor window.
格雷总统花园里的树荫让迅速降临的黄昏变得更加黑暗，而前方庭院里高大的树下的篝火的光芒则让暮色变得更加明亮。一个留着长发、长满青春痘、身穿黑色T恤、7号楼火焰图案下写着“访问地狱”的孩子朝艾姆斯街走去。我打了个招呼。
The fast-falling dusk was made darker from the shade of the trees in President Gray's garden, lighter by the light of the bonfire ahead in the courtyard under the tall tree. A kid with long hair and lots of zits and a black T-shirt with "Visit Hell" written underneath a flaming design of Building 7 walked past toward Ames Street. I said hello.
他没有回应，没有点头，没有发出声音，也没有承认我的存在。
He returned no response, no nod, no noise, no acknowledgment of my existence.
两个挽着手走的女人也无视我的问候。
Two women walking arm in arm also ignored my greeting.
一个高个子男人扎着马尾辫，戴着耳环，穿着一些印度男人穿的衣服，但我们美国人称之为裙子，他打了招呼。我没有打招呼。
A tall guy wearing a ponytail, an earring, and a garment that is wom by some Indian men but we in America call a skirt said hello. I didn't say hello.
在四楼窗户附近，扬声器播放着亨德里克斯的音乐，阳台上挂着玛丽的“运动死亡”T 恤的放大版。骷髅头，星条旗，骷髅牙上的“只有生命才能杀死你”，在篝火的微风中轻轻摇曳。我想，这个地方比贝克斯利还要糟糕。
Near the fourth-floor window, where the speakers played Hendrix, the larger-than-life version of Mary's "Sport Death" T-shirt hung from the balcony. The skull, the stars and stripes, the "Only life can kill you" in the skull's teeth, waved gently in the bonfire's breeze. This place is even worse than Bexley, I thought.
另一个扎着马尾辫的家伙在轮胎秋千上绕着树旋转。他的背部从轮胎处水平向外拱起，离心力将他的马尾辫向外推，他与篝火只有一根头发丝的宽度，他的头从未靠近树；他是一个带有板载微处理器的绳球。他可能已经在电脑上计算出了自己的轨迹，并且准确地知道自己的误差幅度是多少。
Another guy with a ponytail spun around the tree from the tire swing. He arched his back horizontally outward from the tire, and the centrifugal force thrust his ponytail outward as he missed the bonfire by a hair's breadth and his head never came near the tree; he was a tetherball with an on-board microprocessor. He'd probably calculated his trajectory on his computer and knew precisely what his margin for error was.
“是啊，运动死亡！” 一位篝火旁观者说道。体育是一种反抗、嘲讽的命令。那个旁观者穿着一件黄色 T 恤，上面写着“敢于友善”，我向他询问了去多尔西公寓的路线。
"Yeah, Sport Death!" one of the bonfire bystanders said. Sport was a command-to defy, to taunt. The bystander wore a yellow T-shirt that said, "Dare to be friendly," and I asked him for directions to the Dorseys' apartment.
“当然，就在手工艺品店二楼左边河边的地方，”他用愉快的语气说道。
"Sure, it's right down there on the left toward the river, on the second floor of Crafts," he said with a happy tone to his voice.
我与多尔西教授坐下来，他解释了情况。“嗯，你看，阿特金森的导师去澳大利亚内陆地区进行一些基因工程研究，以完成他在怀特黑德研究所的论文工作，他在那里感染了一些奇怪的疾病，正在悉尼的一家医院接受观察。”
I sat down with Professor Dorsey and he explained the situation. "Well, you see, the Atkinson tutor was off doing some genetic engineering research in the Australian outback for his thesis work at the Whitehead institute, and he contracted some strange disease out there and is under observation in a hospital in Sydney."
“哎呀，太可怕了，我希望他能康复。” 但不会很快成为现实。
"Gee, that's terrible; I hope he recovers." But not real soon.
多尔西教授继续说道：“新生高峰周即将到来，除了少数学生之外，学生还没有回来。通常情况下，这是一个非常疯狂的时期，为了防止整个地方爆炸，我认为我们真的需要我们的导师阵容齐全。”
Professor Dorsey continued, "Freshman rush week is coming right up, and the students aren't back yet except for a few. Typically, it's a pretty wild time, and to keep the whole place from blowing up, I think we really need our full complement of tutors."
“我以为都是高年级学生，这不就是他们叫高级楼的原因吗？” 我问。
"I thought it was all seniors; isn't that why they call it Senior House?" I asked.
“不，是高级宿舍，是学院里最古老的宿舍。所有的班级都在这里，也有一些研究生。高峰周的一个问题是，这里通常是新生的最后选择——通常是新生之间的平局。”这里和贝克斯利。没有人愿意住在这里；他们宁愿住在更中间的宿舍，比如河上游的麦克格雷格宿舍和新宿舍，或者兄弟会；甚至有人在讨论关闭高级宿舍作为所以我们真的希望有尽可能多的导师在场，以便密切关注事情并为迷失的新生提供友好的面孔。”
"No, it's the senior house, the oldest dorm in the institute. There are all classes here, and also some graduate students. Part of the issue for rush week is that this place is usually the freshmen's last choice-it's generally a tie between here and Bexley. Nobody wants to live here; they'd rather live at the more middle-of-the road dorms like Macgregor and New House up the river, or at the frats; there's even been talk about shutting down Senior House as a dorm. So we'd really like to have as many tutors on hand as possible, just to keep an eye on things and to be a friendly face for the lost freshmen."
“我想我可以处理这个问题，”我说。“你还在采访其他人吗？”
"I think I could handle that," I said. "Are you interviewing anyone else?"
“嗯，你是第一个接到电话的人，今天院长办公室联系不到其他人。你看起来是一个很好的人；我想你会没事的。我只是想问一个不过，问题是你。你在哪里上的高中？”
"Well, you're the first person who's called, and the dean's office wasn't able to reach anyone else today. You seem like a nice enough person; I think you'd be fine. I'd just like to ask one question of you, though. Where'd you go to high school?"
我想这是一个奇怪的问题。“温斯顿·丘吉尔高中，位于华盛顿特区，”我回答道。
Kind of an odd question, I thought. "Winston Churchill High School, in the Washington, D.C., area," I answered.
“很好。这让我松了口气。你穿的蓝白条纹衬衫，卡其色裤子，还有上衣，我担心你可能是个预科生。我不认为预科生在这里相处得很好。” ……你什么时候可以搬进去？”
"Good. That's a relief. What with the blue and white striped shirt you're wearing, and the khaki pants, and the topsiders, I was afraid you might be a preppy. I don't think a preppy would get along well here. When can you move in?"
“明天，”我说，一想到要离开我在奥尔斯顿的倾斜公寓，我就很高兴。
"Tomorrow," I said, happy at the prospect of leaving my sloping tenement in Allston.
“那太好了，”他说。“现在让我简要总结一下你作为导师的职责。首先，这个词几乎是一个用词不当，因为，坦率地说，本科生通常比研究生更聪明，除了那些作为本科生来到这里的人和那些从加州理工学院过来的。另外，有朋友的学生往往会互相辅导，或者得到上学期上任何课的人的帮助。你作为辅导老师的主要目的是改善宿舍环境更加人性化一点，并站在第一线了解是否有人有情绪问题，”他说。
"That's great," he said. "Now let me briefly summarize your duties as a tutor. First of all, the term is pretty much a misnomer because, well, frankly the undergrads are generally smarter than the graduate students, except for the ones who went here as undergrads and the ones who came here from Cal Tech. Besides, the students who have friends tend to tutor one another, or they get help from someone who took whatever class it is the previous semester. Your main purpose as a tutor is to make the environment in the dorm a little more human, and to be on the front line of knowing whether anyone is having emotional problems," he said.
“嗯。”
"Uh huh."
“你看，我们在这里处于一个棘手的境地；一方面，据称本科生已经是成年人，享有正常社会的所有自由。另一方面，许多本科生在计算机房里度过了业余时间。他们的高中所以他们没有真正有机会发展社交。上帝知道他们在这里没有时间发展社交。所以如果他们中的一个在隆冬时越过栏杆并穿过冰面，就会有一场灾难。他的父母很可能会起诉该学院。你的部分工作就是帮助我们防止这种情况发生。哦，顺便说一句，我们希望你每两周举办一次学习休息，并且一次每个学期你都需要主持一次全校学习休息。”
"You see, we're in a sticky position here; on the one hand the undergraduates are allegedly adults and are accorded all the freedoms of normal society. On the other hand, many of the undergraduates spent their spare time in the computer room at their high schools so they didn't really have a chance to develop socially. And Lord knows there's no time for them to develop socially here. So if one of them goes over the railing and through the ice in the dead of winter, there's a good chance that his parents will sue the institute for all it's worth. Part of your job is to help us prevent that from happening. Oh, and by the way, we'd like you to host a study break every two weeks, and once each term you'll be required to host a whole-house study break."
这样一来，每学期有七次学习休息时间，比如说，一小时去买牛奶和饼干，一小时用于学习休息，一小时用于打扫卫生。那是二十一个小时。现在算一下，每学期有五个小时的自杀预防职责，加上两到三个小时的实际辅导，偶尔的导师会议，我每学期的实际工作时间约为三十小时，乘以两个学期等于六十小时。租金大概是每月 250 美元，或者每年 3000 美元，再加上 1000 美元的食物费用，总共是 4000 美元，除以 60 大约是每小时 65 美元，不含税，所以税前大约是 100 美元一小时。这几乎与一些教授提供的咨询费一样多——太划算了。
That makes, call it seven study breaks per term, at, say, one hour to get the milk and cookies, one hour for the study break itself, and one hour to clean up. That's twenty-one hours. Now figure five hours per term of suicide prevention duty, plus two or three hours of actual tutoring, an occasional tutor's meeting, and I'm up to about thirty hours per term of actual work, times two terms equals sixty hours. The rent's probably worth about $250 a month, or $3K a year, plus another thousand for food, that comes to $4K, divided by sixty is roughly $65 bucks an hour, tax-free, so before taxes that would be about a hundred an hour. That's almost as much as some of the profs make consulting-what a deal.
“要不要我带你参观一下宿舍？” 他问。
"Would you like me to give you a tour of the dorm?" he asked.
“当然，听起来很棒。”
"Sure, that sounds great."
我们再次走过篝火，从朗克尔入口开始。入口是高级住宅的一个子集，有单独的入口、楼梯和走廊。约翰·朗克尔是麻省理工学院的早期校长，他对教育的主要贡献是高中“商店”课程。我问多尔西教授是否有任何关于“运动死亡”从何而来的线索。
We walked past the bonfire again and started with the Runkle entry. An entry is a subset of Senior House, with a separate entrance and stairway and hallways. John Runkle was an early president of MIT, whose major contribution to education was high school "shop" class. I asked Professor Dorsey whether he had any clues as to where "Sport Death" came from.
“我不知道；这只是这里的一种战斗口号。有一个故事说，一名高级学院的学生正在上跳伞课程，他的降落伞没有打开。这应该是‘运动死亡’的终极结果。 ' 我试图检查一下，但找不到任何关于这个故事的文件。另一个，也许更合理的解释是，第一幅画，在朗克尔第四，是由一个孩子画的，他的室友是第一个被杀的麻省理工学院学生。越南。”
"I don't know; it's just sort of a battle cry around here. One story has it that a Senior House student was taking skydiving lessons and his chute didn't open. That was supposed to be the ultimate in 'sporting death.' I tried to check that out and couldn't find any documentation on the story, though. Another, maybe more plausible explanation is that the first painting, here on Runkle fourth, was done by a kid whose roommate was the first MIT student killed in Vietnam."
奇怪的是，传统如何拥有自己的生命，当你认真对待它时，没有人知道它们的含义。
It's odd how traditions take on a life of their own and when you get right down to it nobody knows what they mean.
我们沿着朗克尔第四大道走下去，亨德里克斯的音乐从开着的门传到扬声器里，声音最大。嘿乔，你手里拿着枪要去哪里......
We walked down the length of Runkle fourth, with the Hendrix music at its loudest through the open door to the speakers. Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand ...
“这是原件，”多尔西教授指着头骨壁画说道。“让我给你看看大厅里的蒙克复制品。他们称之为尼莫船长。”
"Here's the original," Professor Dorsey said, pointing to the skull mural. "Let me show you the Munch reproduction down the hall. They call it Captain Nemo."
它同样比生命更伟大——尖叫，痛苦的面孔。我很高兴朗克尔第四名不在我的参赛作品中。多尔西教授带我来到阿特金森，在二楼平台上，一位身材高大、运动健将的学生口述了一封信：“我的计算人员将能够在两个人月内完成这项任务。您真诚的，DLM。”
It was equally larger than life-The Scream, the face of anguish. I was glad Runkle fourth was not in my entry. Professor Dorsey led me to Atkinson, and on the second floor landing, a tall athleticlooking student dictated a letter: "And my computing staff will be able to complete the task within two man-months. Yours sincerely, DLM."
“黛安，这是佩珀·怀特，”多尔西教授说。“他将取代纳比尔成为阿特金森的导师。”
"Dianne, this is Pepper White," Professor Dorsey said. "He'll be replacing Nabil as the Atkinson tutor."
黛安冷笑了一声，仿佛在想：“你们到底想搞什么？为什么要绕开民主程序？” 我希望她的冷笑并不代表阿特金森的人们也有冷笑。最好通过保持友好来将其消灭在萌芽状态。
Dianne sneered a little, as if she thought, "What are you guys trying to pull? Why are you bypassing the democratic process?" I hoped that her sneer wasn't an indicator of sneers to come from the people in Atkinson. Best to nip this in the bud by trying to be friendly.
我问她：“这封信是写给谁的？你要开公司吗？”
I asked her, "Who's the letter to? Are you starting a company?"
“我从九年级就开始从事计算机咨询工作了，”她不耐烦地说。“我在 Senior House 拥有大约八名分包商，我提供营销和客户服务。”
"I've been in computer consulting since ninth grade," she said impatiently. "I've got a staff of about eight subcontractors here in Senior House, and I provide the marketing and client servicing."
“天哪。这真是令人印象深刻，”我说。当我和多尔西教授离开时，她从牙缝里吹了一声口哨，“法国有一个地方，鳄鱼在跳舞。” 我没有立即明白，但很快我就知道这是对我预科生外表的微妙打击。
"Golly. That's pretty impressive," I said. As Professor Dorsey and I left, she whistled between her teeth, "There's a place in France where the alligators dance." I didn't get it immediately, but in a minute I knew it was a subtle slam of my preppy appearance.
即便如此，阿特金森感觉比朗克尔更友善一些。有人用立体声音响演奏了鲍勃·詹姆斯（Bob James）演奏的醇厚的爵士乐。朗克尔散发着大麻和焚香的臭味，而阿特金森则只闻到一半是脏衣服的味道，一半是二十种不同洗发水的味道，一半是空气的味道。
Even so, Atkinson felt a little more friendly than Runkle; somebody had mellow jazz by Bob James playing on a stereo. Whereas Runkle reeked of pot and incense, Atkinson just smelled of one part dirty clothes, one part twenty different kinds of shampoo, and twenty parts air.
公寓很完美。里面有冰箱、水槽、卧室、客厅——一切都像家一样舒适。在它的位置，租金可能是每月 300 美元，从而提高了我的有效小时费率。
The apartment was perfect. It had a refrigerator, sink, bedroom, living room-all the comforts of home. In its location, the rent would probably have been $300 a month, thus raising my effective hourly rate.
回到办公室，阿里给了我一些建议。“我的朋友，你的处境非常敏感，”他说。“学生们可能会组织起来把你赶出去。你不仅会失去免费的食宿；我认为这也可能会影响你作为学生的表现。所以我认为你应该做的是每层楼都吃甜点.每层楼可能有八到十个人；是吗？我正确吗？这个群体足够小，你不会那么紧张，如果你出洋相，信息将是二手的，而不是第一手的。这个这就是我在以色列对我的军队所做的；这是“分而治之”的古老原则。哦，是的，还有一件事。鼓励他们尽可能自己解决争端。否则，如果他们想让你一直当裁判，他们会把你逼疯的。”
Back at the office, Ari gave me some advice. "You are in a very touchy position, my friend," he said. "The students might organize to get you thrown out. You would not only lose your free room and board; I think that might hurt your performance as a student here as well. So what I think you should do is have each floor over for dessert. There are maybe eight or ten of them on each floor; am. I correct? That is a small enough group that you will be less nervous, and if you make a fool of yourself, the information will travel secondhand, not firsthand. This is what I did with my troops in Israel; it is the old principle of 'divide and conquer.' Oh yes, and one more thing. Encourage them to settle their own disputes as much as possible. Otherwise they will drive you crazy if they want to make you the referee all the time."
“这听起来是个好建议，”我说。
"That sounds like good advice," I said.
“哦，还有一件事我忘了提，”阿里说。“你第一次为他们提供的食物必须非常美味且优雅。这就是我们在以色列当恐怖分子劫持人质索要食物时所做的事情。这削弱了他们的抵抗力。” 令人费解的101.
"Oh, and there's one more thing I forgot to mention," Ari said. "The food you serve them for the first time has to be very good and served elegantly. That's what we do in Israel when terrorists holding hostages demand food. It weakens their resistance." Mind bending 101.
9 月 7 日
September 7
对于可怜的麻省理工一年级小学生来说，高峰周只是第一次非人化的经历。我记得霍普金斯大学的迎新周。我知道我的室友是谁，我的房间在哪里。从波托马克开车到巴尔的摩，68 号水星公园巷里塞满了我的音响设备、自行车和衣服，我仍然感到害怕。那里没有地方容纳我的父母，所以他们坐火车，我在那里遇见了他们。我想，如果我从一开始就是一个没有宿舍的人，就像麻省理工学院的人一样，我会更害怕。
Rush week is just the first dehumanizing experience for poor little MIT first-year students. I remembered orientation week at Hop kins. I knew who my roommate would be and where my room would be. Driving up to Baltimore from Potomac, with the '68 Mercury Park Lane stuffed full of my stereo equipment and bicycle and clothes, I was still terrified. There wasn't room for my parents, so they took the train and I met them there. I think I would have been more terrified if I were a dormless person from the beginning, as they are at MIT.
在霍普金斯大学，这是一所规模小得多的本科学校，所以他们可以更轻松地管理这些事情，而且一些校友内心有足够温暖的感情，可以给它捐赠，这样他们就不必总是苦苦寻找金钱和削减预算。 -在霍普金斯大学，我最快乐的迎新记忆是与我的新生迎新小组和导师杰里·科洪（宾夕法尼亚大学学士；麻省理工学院博士）坐在阳光普照的草地上，谈论环境工程以及如何拯救世界。迎新周是一个培养人的一周，是一个结识新朋友、交朋友、邀请他们到我宿舍喝茶的机会。
At Hopkins-OK, it's a much smaller undergraduate school so they can manage these things more easily, and some alumni have warm enough feelings in their hearts to give it an endowment so they don't always have to be grubbing for money and cutting budgets-at Hopkins my happiest memory of orientation was sitting on the sun-drenched grass with my freshman orientation group and my adviser, Jerry Cohon (B.S., Penn; Ph.D., MIT) and talking about environmental engineering and how to save the world. Orientation week was a nurturing week, an opportunity to meet people, make friends, invite them over to my dorm room for tea.
麻省理工学院则不然。Boom，你这个哭哭啼啼的小书呆子，可能一生中从未出去约会过，欢迎你在生活安排中做出最后的选择。欢迎加入兄弟会兄弟，拍拍你的背，并在地下代码中贴上一张贴纸，上面写着“这家伙是个失败者”。欢迎被熟人抛弃，他们承诺当你去洗手间时他们会等你。欢迎来到地狱。
Not so at MIT. Boom, you sniveling little nerd, who probably never went out on a date in your life, welcome to getting your last choice in living arrangements. Welcome to fraternity brothers patting you on the back and putting a sticker there that says, "This guy's a loser" in the underground code. Welcome to being abandoned by acquaintances who promise they'll wait when you go to the bathroom. Welcome to hell.
霍华德·格尔曼 (Howard Gelman) 是第一个前来品尝香草冰淇淋和新鲜蓝莓的人，这些冰淇淋和新鲜蓝莓装在玻璃盘上，配上多尔西餐具套装中的镀银勺子。霍华德是一位来自纽约的矮胖新生。他的声音很爱发牢骚，想主修第六课。高科技。双E.电气工程和计算机科学；缩写发音为“EEKS”。
Howard Gelman was the first to arrive for vanilla ice cream and fresh blueberries served on glass plates with silver plated spoons from the Dorseys' flatware set. Howard was a short, fat freshman from New York. He had a whiny voice and wanted to major in Course Six. High tech. Double E. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; pronounced "EEKS" in short form.
是时候开始赚取免费食宿了。
It was time to start earning my free room and board.
“所以，”我说。“你最近怎么样？”
"So," I said. "How are things going for you?"
“嗯。嗯。他们可以做得更好。我在这儿，不是吗？”
"Ummmm. Ummmm. They could be better. I'm here, aren't I?"
你怎么和这样的人说话？“所以，”我说。暂停。“你在哪里上高中？”
How do you talk to somebody like this? "So," I said. Pause. "Where'd you go to high school?"
“科学，”他指的是布朗克斯科学学院。如果他是一位才华横溢的音乐家或演员，这将是茱莉亚音乐学院，而他的答案将是表演艺术学院。但他的数学很好，比曼哈顿最好的人还要好，而且这里是麻省理工学院。
"Science," he said, referring to the Bronx School of Science. If he were a talented musician or actor this would be Juilliard and his answer would have been the School for Performing Arts. But he was good in math, better than the best in Manhattan, and this was MIT.
“你住哪个房间？” 我问。
"What room are you staying in?" I asked.
“303.这只是一个临时任务。我真的很想去麦格雷戈，但他们已经满了。我要看看下学期我是否可以转学到那里。”
"303. It's just a temporary assignment. I really wanted to be in MacGregor but they were full. I'm going to see whether I can transfer there next term."
祝你好运。一旦他们看到了自己的观点，房间就只有一种打开方式，我怀疑你会想要这种方式。
Good luck. Once they see their views there's only one way a room is going to open up, and I doubt you'd want to get it that way.
我想知道什么时候会有其他人出现。这也太尴尬了。“好吧，其他人随时都会到，”我说。
When is someone else going to show up, I wondered. This is too awkward. "Well, the rest of the people should be here any minute," I said.
“这是泊松分布，人们如何到达任何队列，”他说。“如果从现在到 7 点 10 分之间有 8 个人到达，那么在 15 分钟内总共有 9 个人，或者说每 9 分钟内每 15 个人到达这里一次。在 7 点 05 分之前再有两个人到达这里的概率是 e 的负六。六的立方除以三的阶乘。你有计算器吗？”
"It's a Poisson distribution, how people arrive at any queue," he said. "If eight people will arrive between now and 7:10, that will make nine total in fifteen minutes, or once per every fifteen over nine minutes. The probability that two more people will arrive here by 7:05 is e to the minus six times six cubed over three factorial. Do you have a calculator?"
这孩子不错啊 让我们让他接受训练并离开这里，做一些富有成效的事情，比如弄清楚如何在欧洲部署军队或解码苏联的电缆传输。
This kid's good. Let's get him trained and out of here, doing something productive like figuring out how to deploy troops in Europe or decoding Soviet cable transmissions.
“不，我更喜欢在脑子里做那些简单的事情，”我说。
"No, I prefer to do the easy ones in my head," I said.
一位身穿黑色衬衫、印有红色字母 Sigma Delta 的女士走了进来。“嗨，”她说。“我是辛迪·布鲁克斯。我住在隔壁。”
A woman who wore a black shirt with the red letters sigma delta walked in. "Hi," she said. "I'm Cindy Brooks. I live next door."
布鲁克斯。这个名字听起来很熟悉。哦，是的，布鲁克斯教授这学期正在教我的高级控制课程。
Brooks. That name sounds familiar. Oh yeah, Professor Brooks is teaching my advanced controls class this semester.
“你和教授有关系吗？”
"Are you any relation to the professor?"
“我是他的女儿。”
"I'm his daughter."
法学院的金菲尔德教授也有一个女儿。但这个故事已经写好了。
Professor Kingfield at the law school had a daughter, too. But that story's already been written.
“比如说，我喜欢你的球衣，”我说，指的是上面有红色字母的黑色足球球衣。“西格玛德尔塔代表什么？”
"Say, I like your shirt," I said, referring to the black football jersey with red letters on it. "What does sigma delta stand for?"
“运动死亡。Sigma Delta 是高级学院联谊会。实际上，我们正在寻找愿意成为一些承诺的小兄弟的人。”
"Sport Death. Sigma Delta is the Senior House sorority. Actually we're looking for guys who want to be little brothers for some of the pledges."
“这涉及什么？”
"What does that involve?"
“好吧，每个人生来就有 100 点纯洁点，或者说他们没有做过的事情，”她说。“我们的入会者必须填写表格，这就是他们获得入职前分数的方式。为了获得录取，他们必须将分数降低10%。入职后分数就是衬衫背面的数字。作为弟弟你会帮助他们实现这一点。名单在 35 号楼的计算机系统上。”
"Well, everyone is born with 100 purity points, or things they haven't done," she said. "Our pledges have to fill out the form, and that's how they get their preinitiation score. To get admitted, they have to reduce their score by 10 percent. The postinitiation score is the number on the back of the shirt. As a little brother you would help them accomplish that. The list is on the computer system in Building 35."
一切都可以量化。
Everything can be quantified.
“嗯，我想我教堂里的朋友不会同意。也许你应该在这里和霍华德谈谈。”
"Well, I don't think my friends at church would approve. Maybe you ought to talk to Howard here."
另外两个人走了进来，从冰箱里拿出了冰淇淋。一名来自加纳；另一名来自加纳。另一个是来自波兰的数学专业大二学生。黛安娜，前一天向她的客户口述这封信的女士走了进来。
Two others came in and took their ice cream out of the freezer. One was from Ghana; the other was a sophomore math major from Poland. Dianne, the woman dictating the letter to her client the day before, walked in.
“那么这里到底是怎么回事？” 她问。“你是不是想一层一层地巴结我们，免得我们组织起来把你赶出去，然后民主选导师？你是在玩什么‘分而治之’的游戏吗？” 她微笑着，好像她不是故意的，只是在考验我，看看她是否能把口头服务高手打过我。
"So what's the deal here?" she asked. "Are you trying to butter us up floor by floor so we won't organize to get you kicked out and then select a tutor democratically? Are you playing some 'divide and conquer' game?" She was smiling, as if she didn't mean it, but was just testing me, seeing whether she could put a verbal service ace past me.
“说吧，你认为谁会赢得今年的世界大赛？” 我问。这在大多数圈子里都是有效的。在大多数圈子里，没有人注意到这是一种规避策略。
"Say, who do you think is going to win the World Series this year?" I asked. That works in most circles; in most circles no one even notices it's an evasive maneuver.
“不不不不不。你不会这么容易就脱身的。”她猛然回应道。
"No no no no no. You're not getting off that easy," she volleyed back.
“那么，如果你遇到我的情况，你会怎么做？”
"Well, what would you do in my situation?"
“不能用问题来回答问题。我先问的，”她说。
"No answering a question with a question. I asked first," she said.
其他六名学生吃着冰淇淋，半听着波兰数学学生说一切都是数学，所有的工程都只是美化的技术工作，半听着门边的口头交流。
The other six students ate their ice cream, half-listening to the Polish mathematics student say that everything is mathematics and all engineering is just glorified technician work, half-listening to the verbal exchange near the door.
“好吧，是的，”我说。
"OK, Yes," I said.
“是，什么？”
"Yes what?"
“是的，就像这场骗局获胜方的其他人一样，我是一个贪图金钱的无赖，通过润滑自己进入了这个位置。你想对此做什么？”
"Yes, like everyone else on the winning side of this con game, I'm a money-grubbing sleazeball who greased my way into this position. What do you want to do about it?"
“哦，没什么。我只是好奇。你说，那是一辆意大利赛车吗？也许我们什么时候可以去骑一下。”
"Oh, nothing. I was just curious. Say, is that an Italian racing bike you've got there? Maybe we can go riding sometime."
9 月 15 日
September 15
电话响了; 那是我的母亲。
The phone rang; it was my mother.
“Pepper，你父亲又住院了。他们不知道是心脏病还是癌症还是什么。他发烧了，正在服用各种药物。他们不知道他这次是否能活下来。” ，也许你应该归结为——”
"Pepper, your father's in the hospital again. They don't know whether it's a heart attack or cancer or what. He's got a fever and he's on all kinds of medication. They don't know whether he's going to make it this time, and maybe you should come down to-"
“我会乘坐下一班飞机。”
"I'll be on the next plane."
我和他单独呆在病房里，看着父亲。他已经睡着了，病号服下面裸露的胸部贴着电极。高烧还没有离开他。床边有一台蓝屏示波器，监测着他的生命体征。这就像我在麻省理工学院牢房里的示波器。
Alone with him in the hospital room, I looked at my father. He was asleep, with electrodes taped to his bare chest underneath the hospital gown; the fever hadn't left him. Next to the bed there was an oscilloscope with a blue screen, monitoring his vital signs. It was like the oscilloscope in my cell at MIT.
我想知道护士和医生是否以我看待快速压缩机的方式看待他，作为一种具有输入和输出的设备，在图表上生成点，需要分析、讨论、推理、争论的点。也许他们确实这么想，这样他们就可以与那些没有成功的人保持距离。
I wondered whether the nurses and doctors looked at him the same way I looked at the rapid compression machine, as a device with inputs and outputs, generating points on a graph, points to be analyzed, discussed, reasoned through, argued about. Maybe they did think that way so they could distance themselves from the ones that didn't make it.
现在请不要让他死。请。让我们再陪他几年，也许足以见到他的孙子们了。
Please don't let him die now. Please. Let us have him for a few more years, maybe long enough to see his grandchildren.
护士进来给他量体温。
The nurse came in to take his temperature.
“这很奇怪，”她说。“过去半个小时下降了一度。也许他正在转危为安，变得更好。”
"That's odd," she said. "It went down a degree in the last half hour. Maybe he's turning the corner and getting better."
这可能只是一个巧合。
It was probably just a coincidence.
或者是吗？
Or was it?
章节
C H A P T E R
12
12
两点七十分
Two Seventy
足够多的卡洛里克人仍然留在学院，可以再次组建一支C联赛足球队，尽管许多人已经向外晋升，担任好学校的教授或在工业界从事高薪工作。不过，卡洛斯还在这里，戴夫·奥尔洛夫斯基也在这里。
Enough of the Calorics were still at the institute to field a C-league soccer team again, although many had moved outward and upward to professorships at good schools or high-paying jobs in industry. Carlos was still here, though, and Dave Orlowski, too.
下半场末段与TEP的比赛比分是0-0。我像往常一样在左翼，卡洛斯在右边，戴夫在中间。
The score in the game with TEP was 0-0 late in the second half. I was at left wing as usual, Carlos at right, Dave at center.
左中卫罗宾将球传给了我；我一触即触到了卡洛斯。他向守门员射门，但戴夫挡住了球，我们以教科书式的方式获胜。
Robin, the left halfback, passed up to me; I one-touched it to Carlos. He shot toward the goalie but Dave deflected it and we won in textbook style.
10 月 19 日
October 19
威尔逊教授在设计课上讲道，“我们将次优化定义为优雅地解决了错误的问题。重新布置正在下沉的泰坦尼克号上的躺椅就是一个例子。” 说到沉船，我想知道威尔逊在我们大约一年前推出的踏板动力船员外壳方面取得了怎样的进展。
We define suboptimization," Professor Wilson lectured the design class, as elegantly solving the wrong problem. Rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic is an example." Speaking of sinking ships, I wondered how Wilson had progressed with the pedal-powered crew shell we'd launched almost a year before.
第二门课程七十，设计概论，在我的必修本科课程清单上。这是我和我的硕士学位之间最可怕、最大的障碍，因为有二七十人参加了比赛。工程师和设计师每天都在竞争，以最低的成本制造出最好的产品。还有什么比直接参加建造执行指定任务的最佳设备的竞赛更好的方式来完善您的工程教育呢？
Course Two Seventy, Introduction to Design, was on my list of required undergraduate courses. It was the scariest, biggest hurdle between me and my master's degree because two seventy had The Contest. Engineers and designers compete every working day of their lives to make the best product at the lowest cost. What better way to round out your engineering education than to compete directly, in a contest to build the best device to perform a stated task?
威尔逊继续说道：“现在我想稍微改变一下话题，谈谈比赛。今年的比赛将与往年有所不同。而不是像弗劳尔斯教授那样给你们提供同样的材料。已经完成了，今年你必须从“商店”购买东西，我们会给你 12,500 美元的“预算”。此外，你还必须投入一些微电子学。其中一位助教，奈杰尔亚当斯 (Adams) 认为，任何机械工程师都应该在没有连接好至少一个集成电路的情况下离开麻省理工学院。今年比赛的重点是举起最大的重量上山，如果你的电子产品你将获得 500 克的额外重量有效。此外，今年我们将在 11 月的第三周进行初步淘汰赛，您可以在其中多次测试您的设备。比赛将于感恩节前的周一晚上举行。”
Wilson continued, "Now I'd like to change the subject a bit and talk about The Contest. This year The Contest will be a little different from those of years past. Instead of giving you all the same bag of materials, as Professor Flowers has done, this year you'll have to buy things from a 'store,' and we'll give you a 'budget' of $12,500. Also, you'll have to put in some microelectronics. One of the teaching assistants, Nigel Adams, thinks that no mechanical engineer should leave MIT without having wired up at least one integrated circuit. The point of this year's contest is to lift the most weight up a hill, and you'll receive a 500-gram bonus weight if your electronics works. Furthermore, this year we'll have preliminary elimination rounds during the third week in November, in which you'll be able to test your device several times. The Contest itself will be on Monday night before Thanksgiving."
我想，我真的应该读一些讲义。我所知道的是，一些重量必须在二十秒内到达坡道的顶部，并且只需要一个小小的电动机和两个小小的弹簧，以及“商店”中可用的任何其他东西。所有组件都必须安装在大约与面包盒一样大的几何空间内，并且在 12,500 美元的财务空间内。
I really should read some of those handouts, I thought. All I knew was that some weight had to go to the top of a ramp in twenty seconds, and with just a little tiny electric motor and two little tiny springs, together with whatever else was available in the "store." All the components had to fit within a geometric space about as big as a breadbox, and within a financial space of 12,500 funny dollars.
10月26日
October 26
“我最好开始做这件愚蠢的事情”这句话不断地出现在我的脑海里，所以我最终去了那个名叫“Tiny”的 400 磅重的技术员的商店，看了看球场。它有两半；比赛将以一对一的形式进行，上下半场互为镜像。中线两侧都有鳞片，看起来有好几种方法可以成功上升。地形的一侧有一条胶合板蜿蜒的道路。路边是一个覆盖着人工草皮的障碍训练场，其中有一个“仙人掌”（一根棍子上的金属绿色 U 形），旨在防止我们所有人都从中间爬上去。
"I better get moving on this stupid thing" was going through my head with nagging regularity, so I finally went down to the shop of the 400-pound technician named "Tiny" and looked at the course. It had two halves; The Contest would be run one-on-one, and the halves were mirror images of each other. Scales were on either side of the center line, and it looked as if there were several ways to go up successfully. There was a plywood winding road on one side of the terrain. Bounded by the road was an astroturfcovered obstacle course, including a "cactus" (a metal green U on a stick), designed to prevent us from all going up the middle.
我看了课程，无法决定做什么，所以我查看了“商店”样品：1000 美元的 2 瓦电机；木条，每条 250 美元；螺丝，50 美元；铜焊条，每米75美元；压舌板，25 美元；橡皮筋，100 美元；以及一个四门微电脑芯片，售价 500 美元。当我处理完所有的项目后，我又看了一遍课程。在盘点过程中我产生了一些想法。我在课程中遇到了两位大三学生。
I looked at the course and couldn't decide what to do, so I checked out the sample "store" items: a 2-watt motor for $1,000; wood strips, $250 each; screw, $50; copper welding rod, $75 per meter; tongue depressor, $25; rubber band, $100; and a four-gate microcomputer chip for $500. When I'd finished handling all the items, I looked at the course again. A couple of ideas had come to me during the inventory. I met two juniors at the course.
“我认为这条路绝对是必经之路，”其中一位说道。
"I think the road is definitely the way to go," one of them said.
我同意。“你所要做的就是建造一辆可以在路上行驶的小卡车；制造一个可以运载装满碎石的可乐瓶并在路上行驶的东西是很容易的，”我说，“或者你可以从下面走下去这里的‘仙人掌’，或者建造一辆绕着仙人掌行驶的宽阔越野车，或者像埃菲尔铁塔的电梯一样将重量举起的配重系统怎么样？”
I agreed. "All you have to do is build a little truck that goes up the road; it would be pretty easy to make something that carries a Coke bottle full of gravel and steers itself up the road," I said, "or you could go underneath the 'cactus' here, or build a wide off-road vehicle that goes around the cactus, or how about a counterweight system that lifts the weight up like the elevator in the Eiffel Tower?"
我们又聊了一会儿，他们也有很多想法。我回到办公室。炖菜已经开始煮了。
We talked a while longer, and they, too, had many ideas. I went back to my office. The stew had begun to simmer.
“你为什么不建造一个像起重机一样伸出手臂的东西呢？” 阿里提议道。他不仅驾驶过坦克，还设计过坦克，我很重视他的意见。伸出手臂会给问题增加另一个维度。我怎样才能将 41/2 英尺长的东西放入 2 英尺长的面包盒中？
"Why don't you build something that extends an arm out there like a crane?" Ari suggested. Not only had he driven tanks, he'd also designed them, and I valued his opinion. Extending an arm out would add another dimension to the problem. How could I fit something 41/2 feet long into a 2-foot-long bread box?
10 月 28 日
October 28
9:47 PM “消防车！” 当我走出斯隆实验室前往高级学院的路上时，我想到了这一点。我会建造一个伸缩梯，就像消防车上的梯子一样，它会将重量推到秤上。
9:47 P.M. "A fire truck!" It came to me as I walked out of the Sloan Lab on my way to Senior House. I'd build an extension ladder just like the ones on fire trucks, and it would push the weight onto the scale.
10 月 29 日
October 29
中午我去了消防队，看看这些东西在现实生活中是如何工作的。拉斐特广场有一辆钩梯卡车；卡车是 1941 年制造的，梯子是 1960 年安装的。那是一个巨大的铝制结构，我看了几乎一个小时所有的电缆和滑轮，但我一辈子都不明白它是如何工作的。肖内西中尉提出在周六早上帮我把梯子拿出来展示它的延伸，但周六是学习日，所以我只画了一些机制就离开了。
At noon I went to the fire department to see how these things work in real life. There was a hook and ladder truck at Lafayette Square; the truck had been built in 1941, and the ladder was mounted in 1960. It was a huge aluminum structure, and I looked at all the cables and pulleys for almost an hour and couldn't for the life of me figure out how it worked. Lieutenant Shaughnessy offered to take the ladder out for me on Saturday morning and demonstrate its extension, but Saturday was to be a study day, so I just sketched a few mechanisms and left.
11 月 5 日
November 5
全班160名学生被分成10个“背诵班”。这些课程每周举行一次，每次一小时，提供比大型讲座形式更多的互动教学。去年秋天，汤姆·布莱 (Tom Bligh) 教授对林德伯格的了解比我还多，我曾和他一起提议用风车和热泵为堪萨斯州的农舍供暖，他是我的背诵老师。他为班上160名学生中的约20人提供了个人咨询。汤姆将决定我的成绩。
The class of 160 students was divided into 10 "recitation sections." These met for an hour once a week for more interactive instruction than was available in the larger lecture format. Tom Bligh, the professor who'd known more about Lindbergh than I did the previous fall, and with whom I'd proposed to heat Kansas farmhouses with windmills and heat pumps, was my recitation instructor. He gave personal consultations to about 20 of the 160 students in the class. Tom would determine my grade.
每周与背诵老师会面的一个好处是它会迫使你做一些事情。这次会议有点像我们为斯隆实验室的研究赞助商准备的进度报告。所以前一天晚上我熬夜过了半夜，试图弄清楚如何建造我的消防车梯子。
One advantage of having a meeting with your recitation instructor every week is that it forces you to do something. The meeting was sort of like the progress reports we prepared for the research sponsors in the Sloan Lab. So I was up past midnight the night before, trying to figure out how to build my fire engine ladder.
“我会把木头切成三块等宽的条，然后把三块中的两块粘成L形梁。这样应该相当坚固，制作起来很容易，而且便宜。”我说。我和我的同学开始称材料便宜或昂贵，好像指定的“成本”具有真正的意义。
"I'll cut the wood into three strips of equal width, and then glue two of the three into an L-shaped beam. That should be fairly strong, it's easy to make and cheap," I said. My classmates and I had started calling materials cheap or expensive, as if the assigned "costs" had real meaning.
一些设计细节已经开始出现。我应该在梯子上放置多少个横撑/横档？应该多宽？我将如何延长它？是时候随心所欲了。从五个十字括号开始，看看是否足够。如果没有，就加更多。我开始给自己写越来越多的笔记。“只要构建这个东西，让它工作并进行测试，”我不断地告诉自己。所以周五晚上我用了环氧树脂和木头，以及一块 1 英寸厚的不锈钢，在环氧树脂硬化时将木头固定在一起。
Already little design details started popping up. How many cross braces/rungs should I put in my ladder? How wide should it be? How will I extend it? It was time to be arbitrary. Start with five cross braces and see whether that's enough. If not, put more in. I began to write more and more notes to myself. "Just build the thing, get it working and tested," I kept telling myself. So I spent Friday night with epoxy and wood, and a piece of stainless steel 1 inch thick to hold the wood together while the epoxy hardened.
11 月 6 日
November 6
我的 L 型钢效果非常好。环氧树脂硬化；我从来不相信木头可以这么硬。我预计八点钟就会有一群暴徒，于是我到达了蒂尼的商店，但大多数人都睡了，我找到了一台可用的钻床，可以在上面为我的铜棒钻孔。我在两只脚上放了五个横档，我再次对坚硬、轻盈的结果感到惊讶。
My L-beams came out really well. The epoxy hardened; I would never have believed wood could be that stiff. Expecting a mob at eight, I arrived at Tiny's shop, but most people slept in and I found an available drill press on which to drill the holes for my copper rods. I put five rungs in two feet, and again I was amazed at the stiff, light results.
花了一上午的时间才钻了二十个洞，当我完成时，这个地方已经开始跳动了。每个人的背包里都装满了木条和焊条；对于大多数人来说，这是施工的第一天。一些人建造了框架，一些人为 2 瓦电机建造了驱动系统，另一些人在车床上用砖石加工了车轮。
It took all morning to drill the twenty holes, and by the time I finished the place was hopping. Everyone had backpacks filled with wood strips and welding rod; for most of them it was the first day of construction. Some built frames, some built drive systems for their 2-watt motors, others machined wheels from masonite on the lathes.
到了 1:00，我的横梁和焊条开始看起来像梯子，有人说：“这是我见过的最好的赛道。”
By 1:00 my beams and welding rod began to look like a ladder and somebody said, "That's the best track I've seen yet."
我说：“谢谢，但这不是轨道，而是梯子。”
I said, "Thanks, but it's not a track, it's a ladder."
他说：“哦。好吧，不管它是什么，它都建得很好。”
He said, "Oh. Well, it's nicely built, whatever it is."
下午 2:00，我将绳子交错在梯子的横档之间，这样当我拉动一端时，绳子就完全伸展开来。有效！但当我对它施加重量时，它几乎没有延伸。
2:00 P.M., and I had my string interlaced among the rungs of my ladder so that it extended fully when I pulled on one end. It worked! But when I put a weight on it it hardly extended at all.
“解决重量支撑问题，”我在实验室笔记本上写道——这是一个多么大的问题。如果我将梯子瞄准秤，梯子末端和下面的地形之间就会有一个恒定的角度，但梯子末端的高度会随着爬山而变化。我确信我不想设计一个在爬坡时会收缩的车轮组件。是时候骑自行车了。
"Resolve weight support problem," I wrote in my lab notebook-and what a problem it was. If I aimed the ladder at the scale, there would be a constant angle between the end of the ladder and the terrain below, but the height of the ladder end would vary as it would climb the hill. I was sure I didn't want to design a wheel assembly that would contract as it climbed the hill. Time for a bike ride.
11 月 7 日
November 7
晚上 9:20 在我的机械制图作业中，我的目光无法从梯子上移开。我一直在想，我该如何支撑这个重量？梯子看起来很棒，但它永远不会像现在这样工作。必须有一种方法来支撑重量。
9:20 P.M. In the middle of my mechanical drawing assignment, I couldn't keep my eyes off the ladder. I kept thinking, How am I going to support that weight? The ladder looks great, but it will never work as is. There's got to be a way to support the weight.
然后它来了。灯泡出现在我的头顶上，我从办公桌抽屉里拿出了一些橡皮筋。为什么不用橡皮筋把梯子射出来，然后将重物绞到“轨道”上呢？
And then it came. The light bulb appeared over my head and I took some rubber bands out of my desk drawer. Why not shoot the ladder out with rubber bands, then winch a weight up the "track"?
中午 12:40，我还在床上翻来覆去，想着用不同的方法射出梯子和拉起重物：痴迷开始了。这个词获得了新的含义。这些信就像贝蒂·戴维斯电影的开头一样滴落下来，我意识到二七十分有我。
12:40 A.M., and I was still tossing and turning in bed with the ideas of different ways to shoot the ladder out and haul up the weight: obsession was beginning. The word obtained new meaning. The letters dripped as at the beginning of a Bette Davis movie and I realized that two seventy had me.
11 月 8 日
November 8
“现在这是一个很好的工程，”汤姆布莱在检查我的梯子时说道。“你知道，我不明白一些参加这门课程的人如何能够完成他们所做的草率的工作并与自己相处。对于工程师来说，除了高质量之外，应该没有其他的方法来做事。”
"Now this is a good piece of engineering," Tom Bligh said as he examined my ladder. "You know I don't see how some of the people who take this course can do the slipshod work they do and live with themselves. For an engineer, there should be no other way to do things than with high quality."
“嗯，我的优势是作为一名实验室技术人员有效地工作了近两年，我已经了解了如何正确设置和构建它们，”我说。我试图保持谦虚，但我意识到我所要做的就是继续做好工作，我就会获得第二个 A。
"Well, I've got the advantage of having effectively worked as a lab technician for almost two years, and I've seen how to set things up and build them right," I said. I tried to be modest, but I realized that all I had to do was to keep up the good work and I'd have my second A.
“是的，好吧，你还有很多事情要做，但没有太多时间去做，”他说，我同意了。“让我们尝试用恒力弹簧来射击它。”
"Yes, well you've still got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it," he said and I agreed. "Let's try shooting this out with the constant force spring."
他卷起梯子，将一个舞台叠在另一个舞台上，弹簧完全伸展。“你站在我对面，”他说。“注意你的眼睛。” 当他放手时，我距离他大约五英尺。上面的舞台直接飞进了我的怀里。“我认为它有足够的流行度可以上山；你觉得怎么样？” 他问。
He wound up the ladder and put one stage on top of the other with the spring fully stretched. "You stand over there across from me," he said. "Watch your eyes." I was about five feet from him when he let go. The upper stage flew right into my arms. "I think it's got enough pop to go up the hill; what do you think?" he asked.
“我想我是在做生意，但还有很多事情要处理，”我说。
"I think I'm in business but have a lot of business to attend to," I said.
“尽快让它发挥作用，”他说。
"Just get it working as quickly as you can," he said.
11 月 9 日
November 9
任务：腿、止回机构、将重物拉上轨道的推车、滑轮、电机驱动系统、框架。细节，细节，细节，足以让你发疯。现在忘掉电子产品吧：它只值 500 克。但我也必须解决其他问题集，并且我必须在快速压缩机上的论文工作上保持一些表面上的进展。啊啊。所以这就是为什么麻省理工学院是美国最好的工程学院，这意味着世界上最好的工程学院。
Tasks: legs, nonreturn mechanism, cart to pull weight up track, pulley, drive system for motor, frame. Details, details, details, enough to drive you crazy. Forget electronics for now: it's only worth 500 grams. But I have to work on other problem sets, too, and I have to maintain some semblance of progress with my thesis work on the rapid compression machine. Aargh. So this is why MIT is the best engineering school in the United States, which means in the world.
晚上 9:00 “Ari，这对我来说已经成为一种困扰。我无法做任何其他事情或思考任何其他事情。有太多事情要做，我必须让事情顺利进行，但我的时间不多了。 ”
9:00 P.M. "Ari, it's becoming an obsession to me. I can't do anything else or think of anything else. There's so much to do, and I have to keep things rolling, and I'm running out of time."
“是的，就像咖啡一样，”他回答道。
"Yes, it's like co ca heen," he answered.
“像什么？”
"Like what?"
“可，你知道，你吸入它，”他用鼻子深深地吸了一口气，“你吸得越多，你想要的就越多。”
"Co ca heen, you know, you breathe it in," and he took a big breath through his nose, "and the more you breathe in the more you want."
“正是如此，”我一边说，一边回去查看我的机器。
"That's it exactly," I said as I went back to look at my machine.
11 月 10 日
November 10
是时候回顾一下预算了：恒力弹簧，500美元；木条，1,750 美元；纤维板，1,000 美元；电机，1,000美元；焊条，350 美元 ... 4,600 美元总计。还剩下将近8000美元。是时候计划第二天的事情了。有组织的拖延很有用，因为决定你要在机械车间做什么通常比实际执行要花更长的时间。
Time to review the budget: constant force spring, $500; wood strips, $1,750; masonite sheet, $1,000; motor, $1,000; welding rod, $350 ... $4,600 total. Almost $8,000 left. Time to plan for the next day. Organized procrastination is useful because deciding what you're going to do in a machine shop usually takes longer than doing it.
我必须设计那个框架。这很容易，但我无法克服阻止我解决这个子问题的惯性。不过，如果我能在明天晚上之前搭建好框架，我的状态就会很好。
I've got to design that frame. It's easy, but I can't overcome the inertia keeping me from that subproblem. If I can build the frame by tomorrow night, though, I'll be in good shape.
11 月 11 日
November 11
退伍军人节，我参加了核战争的教学吗？Nooooo00 ...正如约翰·贝鲁什（John Belushi）所说。我从事我的二七十项目。
Veteran's Day and did I go to the teach-in on nuclear war? Nooooo00 ... as John Belushi would have said. I worked on my two seventy project.
下午 4:00 我在大圆顶前等待沙拉三明治。一个三十七岁的留着胡须的男人走下台阶，朝波士顿走去。他穿着蓝色牛仔裤，从膝盖以下都是皮革和木头的。作为一名越战老兵，他为和平腾出了时间。
4:00 P.M. I waited for my falafel in front of the Great Dome. A bearded man, thirty-seven, walked down the steps toward Boston. He wore blue jeans and leather and wood from his knee down. A Vietnam veteran, he made time for peace.
9:00 PM “你知道会造成什么样的破坏吗？” 阿栗语气激烈的说道。“这会让你至少倒退 100 年。从本质上讲，你是靠前几代人的工作生活的。决不能发生核战争。”
9:00 P.M. "Do you realize what destruction there would be?" Ari said vehemently. "It would set you back at least 100 years. Essentially you are living on the work of all the generations before you. There must not be a nuclear war."
我有点惊讶，因为我认为阿里，我认识的最坚定的反苏鹰派，会向我保证，这些武器是将熊关在笼子里所必需的。“更重要的是，”他说，“那里没有人，没有学生，没有人。你们根本不关心这个吗？这可能是世界末日，那里也没有人。”
I was a little surprised because I thought Ari, the staunchest anti-Soviet hawk I knew, would assure me that the weapons were necessary to keep the bear in its cage. "And what's more," he said, "there was nobody there, no students, nobody. Don't you people care at all about this? It could be the end of the world and there'd be no one there."
“但我有我的二七十项目要担心，”我说。“明年我还会去那里。”
"But I have my two seventy project to worry about," I said. "I'll be there next year."
“明年将会是另一回事。”
"Next year it will be something else."
11 月 12 日
November 12
参赛者带着看起来像机器的设备来到机械车间。越来越少的人携带装着木条的背包，越来越多的人携带装有部分完成的设备的盒子。我当时还处于背包阶段。
Contestants arrived at the machine shop with machinelike-looking devices. Fewer and fewer carried backpacks with wood strips in them, and more and more carried boxes with partially completed devices. I was still at the backpack stage.
下午 3:00 布莱教授外出，因此我与格里菲斯教授进行了交谈。他把自行车停在海伍德、韦尔和威尔逊的旁边。和他们一样，他也为能源行业提供咨询服务。和他们一样，他也骑自行车上班，因为他重视效率。他说：“关键是，你可以在这个项目上花两个小时，制作一个弹射器，然后把重量放在秤上，或者你可以花两年的时间，把太空计划的努力投入其中。我们试图教你根据有限的时间和资源做出决定。这就是现实世界一直以来的样子。”
3:00 P.M. Professor Bligh was out, so I spoke with Professor Griffith. He parked his bicycle next to Heywood's, Weare's, and Wilson's. Like them, he consulted to the energy industry. Like them, he bicycled to work because he valued efficiency. He said, "The point is, you could spend two hours on this project, make a catapult, and put a weight up on the scale, or you could spend two years on it, and put the effort of the space program into it. We're trying to teach you to make decisions based on limited time and resources. That's what the real world is like all the time."
晚上 7:00 放松时间。我想知道这门课程导致了多少人精神崩溃。我的个人日程和目标有所下滑。我必须构建那个框架，但它涉及太多细节，我不知道从哪里开始。
7:00 P.M. Freak-out time. I wondered how many nervous breakdowns this course had produced. I was slipping on my personal schedule and goals. I had to build that frame, but it involved so many details I didn't know where to start.
我和阿里谈过。“冷静点，”他说。“到目前为止，你已经做得很好了。继续保持下去，不要让压力压倒你。”
I talked to Ari. "Calm down," he said. "You've done good work so far. Just keep it up and don't let the pressure overwhelm you."
“你说得对。但今晚我太紧张了，无法思考。我必须去滑冰。” 于是我就去了溜冰场。那里大约有一百名滑冰者，冰真的被切碎了——在赞博尼人将其清理干净后仅十五分钟。赞博尼对我来说看起来更容易理解。我想把它拆开，看看它的每一个小部件是如何工作的。
"You're right. But tonight I'm so wound up I can't think. I've got to go skating." So I went to the rink. There were about a hundred skaters there and the ice was really chopped up-only fifteen minutes after the Zamboni had cleaned it off. The Zamboni looked more comprehensible to me. I wanted to take it apart and see how every little piece of it worked.
那里有很多滑冰者，突然开始和停止。对于麻省理工学院的学生来说，滑冰就像磨牙一样，而冰球是最受欢迎的校内运动。经过五十圈艰苦的比赛后，我去了高级之家，度过了一周以来最好的一晚睡眠。
There were many skaters there, starting and stopping abruptly. Skating is like grinding one's molars together for MIT students, and ice hockey is the most popular intramural sport. After fifty hard laps, I went to Senior House for my good night's sleep of the week.
11 月 13 日
November 13
下雨。谢天谢地，否则我可能会放弃一整天的自行车来避免做我的项目。我上了3号楼楼上练习跑道的地方。房间里还有另一个人。他有一台带有大砖石轮子和木制轮毂的机器，正试图让他的抓钩抓住篮板，并将卡车绞到秤上。
Raining. Thank goodness for that, or I'd have probably blown the whole day cycling to avoid working on my project. I went upstairs in Building 3 to where the practice track had been set up. There was one other guy in the room. He had a machine with big masonite wheels and wooden hubs and was trying to make his grappling hook catch the backboard and winch his truck up to the scale.
我必须构建框架。这意味着：计算出要切割的木块的高度并切割它们。然后列出任务清单。1. 切割两块 3-5/s 英寸的碎片。2. 切两块 5 英寸/2 英寸的块。3. 切两块 73/16 英寸长的块。4. 环氧树脂拼凑在一起。5. 切割焊条。6. 切出间隙间隙。在这种事情上保持理智的唯一方法就是列出清单，然后核对掉。
I had to build the frame. That meant: figure out heights of wooden pieces to cut and cut them. Then make a list of tasks. 1. Cut two 3-5/s-inch pieces. 2. Cut two 5-'/2-inch pieces. 3. Cut two pieces 73/16 inches long. 4. Epoxy pieces together. 5. Cut welding rods. 6. Cut notches for clearance. The only way to keep your sanity in this kind of thing is to make lists and then check things off.
学生机械车间全天开放，3号楼的地下室没有失业人员。每台车床、每台带锯、每台铣床、每台钻头都在不断使用。战时。创新研究、开发、制造只需几分钟、几小时。只剩下120个小时了。没有时间拖延了。二七十分是有机化学工程实验室。有机实验室给医学预科生手术室压力；两点七十分给工程师生产线带来压力。人们开始互相问：“这有效吗？” 每次听到这个问题，我都会更加坚定地致力于使其发挥作用。
The student machine shop was open all day and there was no unemployment in the basement of Building 3. Every lathe, every bandsaw, every milling machine, every drill was in constant use. Wartime. Innovations researched, developed, manufactured in minutes, hours. Only 120 hours left. No time to procrastinate. Two seventy is the organic chemistry lab of engineering. Organic lab gives premeds operating room pressure; two-seventy gives engineers production line pressure. People began to ask one another, "Does it work?" Each time I heard the question my commitment to make it work was heightened.
晚上 9:30，我坐在男洗手间（3-126），感觉到整个建筑都因地下室机器的嗡嗡声而振动。每次从地下室车间到四楼试验场的楼梯上上下下，前一年最好的机器的展示都会引起我的注意。他们就在米基奇办公室对面的箱子里；我今年最好的机器将在一月份到达。我变得不那么累了。
9:30 P.M. I sat in the men's room (3-126) and felt the whole building vibrate from the whirr of the machines in the basement. On each trip up and down the stairs from the workshop in the basement to the testing ground on the fourth floor, the display of the best machines from the year before caught my eye. They were in the case across from Mikic's office; the best machines from my year would be there in January. I became less tired.
晚上 11:00 所有机器都关闭的时刻。我错过了噪音。有人打开了带锯。
11:00 P.M. A moment when all machines were off. I missed the noise. Someone turned on the bandsaw.
11 月 14 日
November 14
要做的事：午餐后在图书馆阅读周日漫画。在延伸部分钻孔，以便在其飞散时接住它。将底座粘在一起。需要做的事情还很多。有很多琐碎的细节需要注意。
To do: Read Sunday comics in library after lunch. Drill holes in extension to catch it as it flies apart. Glue base together. So much to do. So many piddly details to attend to.
晚上 8:50 我需要家人的支持，所以我打电话回家。
8:50 P.M. I needed familial support so I called home.
“我有一些悲伤的消息要告诉你，佩珀，”我母亲说。“你的狗刚刚死了。”
"I have some sad news for you, Pepper," my mother said. "Your dog just died."
为什么它必须同时发生？为什么我不等到比赛结束后才打电话，这样我就不用担心这个问题了？挂断电话后，我踢了一个塑料饼干托盘，它碎了。
Why does it have to happen all at once? Why didn't I wait until after the contest to call so I wouldn't have to worry about this? After I hung up, I kicked a plastic cookie tray and it shattered.
阿里跑到我的办公室，发现我在哭泣。“你必须重新掌控局面。这里的教授们并不关心你发生了什么事；他们只关心你产出了什么。现在去洗个澡，然后回去工作。你必须完成你已经开始的工作。 ” 他说得好像我是他的一名受到炮弹休克的士兵一样。他很坚定，我对此表示赞赏。
Ari ran over to my office and found me sobbing. "You have to get back in control. The professors here don't care what happened to you; they just care about what you produce. Now go and wash yourself and go back to work. You must finish the job you've started." He said it as if I were one of his soldiers who was shellshocked. He was firm, and I appreciated it.
12:30 AM 框架完成。我比计划晚了一天，但至少我可以睡觉了。
12:30 A.M. The frame was complete. I was one day behind schedule, but at least I could sleep.
11 月 15 日
November 15
上午去上课；PM，从事电子工作。
A.M. go to class; P.M., work on electronics.
“如何使用这个绕线工具？” 我问辛迪。
"How do I use this wire-wrap tool?" I asked Cindy.
“这很容易，”她一边说，一边用这个工具将两根电线固定在我芯片上的引脚周围。“好了。你现在就试试吧。”
"It's easy," she said as she used the tool to fix two wires around pins on my chip. "There. You try now."
很容易。技术的另一个谜团对我来说已经消失了。辛迪完成了电路的接线，另一位本科生向我寻求帮助。
It was easy. Another mystery of technology had vaporized for me. Cindy finished wiring her circuit, and another undergraduate woman asked me for help.
“这很容易，”我说，然后我向她展示了如何连接电线。她很漂亮，我提醒自己，当我还是一年级学生时，她才六年级——别想约她出去约会。
"It's easy," I said, and I showed her how to attach the wire. She was beautiful, and I reminded myself that when I was a freshman she was in sixth grade-don't even think of asking her out on a date.
下午 6:30 重新接线 3 次后，我的电路终于工作了。如果不出意外的话，我会赢得 500 克的额外重量。
6:30 P.M. After rewiring it three times, my circuit finally worked. If nothing else, I would win the 500-gram bonus weight.
11 月 16 日
November 16
我的机械制图测试直观而简短，但不幸的是我没有收到第二页，必须稍后在布莱的办公室完成测试。就在我开始认为自己很聪明的时候。我已经完成了框架、电子设备和梯子。剩下的就是构建驱动系统。那么如果这是最难的部分呢？我的钱快用完了。我买不起商店出售的现成棒的“成本”，所以我不得不拒绝车床上更便宜的方棒。这只需要三个小时。我不仅是发明家、研究员、生产线工人、成本会计；我是一位微观经济学家，用时间——即劳动力（即我的睡眠）——来交换资本，即现成商品。
My mechanical drawing test was intuitive and short, but unfortunately I didn't receive page two and would have to finish the test later in Bligh's office. Just when I was beginning to think I was smart. I'd completed the frame, the electronics, the ladder. All that remained was to build the drive system. So what if that would be the hardest part? I was running out of money. I couldn't afford the "cost" of the ready-made rods that the store sold, so I'd have to turn down a cheaper square bar on the lathe. That would take only three hours. Not only was I inventor, researcher, production line worker, and cost accountant; I was a micromicroeconomist trading time-i.e., labor (i.e., my sleep)-for capital, i.e., readymade goods.
四小时后，我完成了轴的加工。
Four hours later I finished machining the shaft.
11 月 17 日
November 17
上午 7:00 距离第一次审判还剩 36 小时。我很早就去了斯隆实验室，这样我就可以招募尼克来帮助我设置实验室的车床，为我的驱动轮加工镁森石。
7:00 A.M. Thirty-six hours left until the first trials. I went to the Sloan Lab early so I could recruit Nick to help me set up the lab's lathe to machine the masonite for my drive wheel.
9:55 AM 去拿计算器和书籍，进行剩下的机械制图考试。我对自己说：“假装你在西点军校，每天都有考试。”
9:55 A.M. Go to pick up calculator and books for rest of mechanical drawing test. I said to myself, "Just pretend you're at West Point and you always have a test every day."
上午 10:45 返回尼克处寻求更多帮助。
10:45 A.M. Back to get more help from Nick.
中午 12:10 尼克去吃午饭。
12:10 P.M. Nick went to lunch.
下午 1:20 还剩 30 个小时。由于驱动系统无法正常工作，我无法毁掉所有东西。这台机器看起来太棒了，不能错过决赛。我必须完成它。要做的事： 1. 将电线焊接到电机引线上。2. 转动电机轴。3、搭建驱动系统。4. 制作传动系统轴承。5、搭建驱动系统。为了强调，我写了两遍。
1:20 P.M. Thirty hours left. I can't blow everything because of a nonfunctioning drive system. The machine looks too good to miss the finals. I've got to finish it. To do: 1. Solder wires to motor leads. 2. Turn down motor shaft. 3. Build drive system. 4. Make bearings for drive system. 5. Build drive system. I wrote it twice for emphasis.
我知道我每小时都需要。我太紧张了，无法焊接电线，所以我做了一点小作弊，玛丽冷静地很快帮我焊接了它们。
I knew I'd need every hour. I was so nervous I couldn't solder the wires, so I cheated a little bit and Mary calmly, quickly soldered them for me.
晚上 8:00 我开玩笑地问助教奈杰尔·亚当斯 (Nigel Adams)，“你打算让 2 点 70 分的机械车间通宵营业吗？” 我一半希望他说“不”，这样我就可以睡一会儿，一半希望他说“是”，这样我就可以战斗到最后一刻。
8:00 P.M. I jokingly asked Nigel Adams, the teaching assistant, "Are you going to keep the two-seventy machine shop open all night?" I half-wanted him to say no so I could get some sleep, half-wanted him to say yes so I could fight to the wire.
“是的。'
"Yes.'
11:00 PM 机械车间有 15 个人，更不用说 Tiny 车间的 10 个人以及楼上赛道上的 10 个人测试；有人带来了一个音箱来让我们度过整夜的帮派。人们一起放声歌唱。你可以在机器的嗡嗡声中听到他们的声音。
11:00 P.M. Fifteen people in the machine shop, not to mention ten in Tiny's shop and ten upstairs testing at the track; somebody brought in a boom box to keep us going through the gang-allnighter. People sang along at the top of their lungs. You could just hear them over the whirr of the machines.
凌晨 2:00 两个轴均已完成。是时候调小驱动轮以使其安装在轴承中了。
2:00 A.M. Both shafts done. Time to turn down the drive wheel to make it fit in the bearing.
凌晨 3:30 将驱动轮压装到轴上。快速决定钻头尺寸。
3:30 A.M. Press fit drive wheel onto shaft. Make quick decision on drill sizes.
4:00 AM 轮子在轴上。如果您熬到凌晨 4:00，夜幕即将降临。我遇到了艾迪，他是前一年阻止我伤害自己的看门人。“没时间说话，艾迪，我稍后再找你。”我说。
4:00 A.M. The wheel was on the shaft. If you make it to 4:00 A.M., the back of the night is broken. I met Eddy, the janitor who'd kept me from hurting myself the year before. "No time to talk, Eddy, I'll catch up with you later," I said.
上午 6:30 我的轮轴在我通过在一块黑色聚四氟乙烯上钻一个孔制成的轴承中轻松移动。还有希望。是时候清理一下了，这样没人会知道我们三十五个人整晚都在那里。该机构的保险公司会怎么说？
6:30 A.M. My wheel's axle moved easily in the bearing I'd made by drilling a hole in a piece of black Teflon. There was hope. Time to clean up so nobody would know the thirty-five of us were there all night. What would the institute's insurance company say?
8:00 AM 早餐甜甜圈和酸奶。
8:00 A.M. Doughnut and yogurt for breakfast.
上午 8:15 午睡时间。
8:15 A.M. Nap time.
11 月 18 日
November 18
我的数字闹钟显示 12:50，而我的考试时间是中午。哎呀！一秒钟就穿上衣服，跑过校园。在我的实验室里我看不懂时钟。看起来像是 11:30，但又有点像 12:30，我无法区分三个小时的睡眠。“冷静点，”我对自己说。“叫时间吧。”
My digital alarm clock said 12:50 and my test was at noon. Aieeee! Get into clothes in a second and run across campus. At my lab I couldn't read the clock. It looked like 11:30, but sort of like 12:30 and I couldn't tell the difference on three hours' sleep. "Calm down," I said to myself. "Call the time."
“听到提示音后，时间将是 11 点 32 分 20 秒。”
"At the tone the time will be 11:32 and 20 seconds."
1:30 PM Chet 有时可能会很粗鲁，但内心深处他是一个好人。我向切特寻求驱动系统方面的帮助。
1:30 P.M. Chet could be rough around the edges at times, but deep down inside he was a good guy. I asked Chet for help with the drive system.
这是他表现出乐于助人的时候之一。“就这样把它拼起来，然后用5分钟的环氧树脂粘合起来，”他说，我们两个人在2:00之前完成了施工。
This was one of the times his helpfulness showed through. "Just put it together like this and glue it with 5-minute epoxy," he said, and the two of us finished construction before 2:00.
下午 3:00 我在 Lobdell 遇见了 Cindy Brooks。她端着一个托盘，里面有五个三明治，她坐在我的桌子旁。
3:00 P.M. I met Cindy Brooks at Lobdell. She had a tray with five sandwiches and she sat at my table.
“我希望你能坐在这里，”我说。
"I was hoping you'd sit here," I said.
“呃。哦，哎呀，我就随便坐。” 她很尴尬。下次不要表现得这么强势，我想。
"Uh. Oh, gee, I just sit wherever." She was embarrassed. Next time don't come on so strong, I thought.
“为什么要这么多三明治？” 我问。
"Why so many sandwiches?" I asked.
“这是我接下来三十个小时的食物，”她回答道。“我的初赛是明天。”
"This is my food for the next thirty hours," she answered. "My preliminary round is tomorrow."
“好吧，祝你好运。待会儿见。”我说。
"Well, good luck. See you later," I said.
下午 4:00 驱动系统运行！
4:00 P.M. Drive system operational!
下午 5:00 在赛道上进行测试。梯子没有按照应有的方式展开。下楼并设置止动件。我总是错误地穿线，并且各部分相互卡住。但它有潜力。绳子缠绕在绞盘轴上，就像真正的绞盘一样。
5:00 P.M. Testing on the track. The ladders didn't deploy the way they should. Go downstairs and put stops in. I kept threading the string wrong, and the sections jammed against each other. But it had potential. The string wound around the winch shaft just like on a real winch.
晚上 7:00 预选赛，第一轮。另一位背诵导师布兰科教授说：“我们只是想看看周一很有可能发挥作用的东西。” 更多希望。
7:00 P.M. Trials, round one. Professor Blanco, another recitation instructor, said, "We just want to see something that has a good chance of working on Monday." More hope.
我的第一轮。梯子出去了，但当它伸展时，它因自身重量而倒塌。我下楼做支撑来接住它。
My first round. The ladder went out but as it extended it fell under its own weight. I went downstairs to make supports to catch it.
8:00 PM 制作支撑。我该怎么做？我没有时间。我厌倦了做出所有这些愚蠢的决定。钻头在哪里？我制作棒需要多长时间？哎呀！啊啊！我不得不离开商店，撞到墙上，靠着墙站着，尽量不让自己流泪。这个愚蠢的事情几乎起作用了。如果我没有进入决赛，那么我所花费的所有时间都被浪费了。然后……冷静下来。您所要做的就是钻几个孔并放入一些焊条。今晚就这样了。
8:00 P.M. Make supports. How do I do it? I don't have time. I'm sick of making all these stupid decisions. Where are the drill bits? How long do I make the rods? Aieee! Aargh! I had to leave the shop, hit the wall, and stand against it and try not to burst into tears. The stupid thing almost works. If I don't make it to the finals all the time I've spent is wasted. Then ... Calm down. All you have to do is drill a couple of holes and put some welding rod in. That'll do for tonight.
我做到了，它也做到了。梯子没有达到规模，但它已经足够让我保持在希望的舞台上。
I did and it did. The ladder didn't make it to the scale but it went far enough to keep me in the arena of hope.
11:00 PM 我走下楼梯，遇到了一位看上去很年轻的大二学生。
11:00 P.M. I walked down the stairs and encountered a youngish looking sophomore.
“嗅探嗅探。”
"Sniff, sniff."
“怎么样了？” 我戴上“导师”帽子问道。
"How's it going?" I asked, putting on my "tutor" hat.
“这不起作用，”然后抽泣变成了抽泣。
"It doesn't work," and the sniffs became sobs.
“你的审判什么时候进行？”
"When's your trial?"
“明天，我已经连续三个晚上没睡了，还是不行。”
"Tomorrow. I've been up all night for the past three nights and it still doesn't work."
我怎么知道你的感受，我想。“我知道你正在经历什么。如果不可能让整个事情正常运转，为什么不在接下来的几个小时内设定一些个人目标；比如说，尝试让一两个子系统正常工作。”
How I know how you feel, I thought. "I know what you're going through. If it's not possible to make the whole thing work, why don't you set some personal goals for the next few hours; say, try to get one or two subsystems to work."
“我已经从这个愚蠢的课程中得到了我想要的一切。”
"I've already gotten all I want to out of this stupid course."
懦夫。
Wimp.
辛迪在楼下商店外面，旁边是一个航空工程部的人。
Cindy was downstairs, outside the store, working next to a guy from the Aeronautical Engineering department.
“我不敢相信这个部门的人们如此友好，”她说。
"I can't believe how friendly people are in this department," she said.
“也许是因为我们比你们航空业的人有更广泛的职业选择，”我说。
"Maybe it's because we have wider career options than you aero guys," I said.
“是的，就像制造烤面包机而不是杀手卫星一样，”辛迪补充道。“或者玩具。在美泰玩具公司工作不是很有趣吗？”
"Yeah, like making toasters instead of killer satellites," Cindy added. "Or toys. Wouldn't it be fun to work for Mattel Toys?"
我一生中第一次想到，如果我愿意的话，我可以为美泰玩具公司工作。
For the first time in my life I thought I could work for Mattel Toys if I wanted to.
11 月 19 日，星期五
Friday, November 19
休息日，以及处理被忽视的细节的时间，例如支付账单。
Rest day, and time to catch up on neglected details, e.g., paying bills.
11:00 PM 滑冰结束。体育中心的牌匾听起来很真实：“不是猎物，而是追逐；不是桂冠，而是比赛”（Burgess，1885）。
11:00 P.M. Finished skating. The plaque in the athletic center rang true: "Not the quarry but the chase; not the laurel but the race" (Burgess, 1885).
'大约午夜时分。我把梯子的横档喷成银色。如果没有其他的话，看起来会很好。
'Round midnight. I spray-painted the ladder rungs silver. It would look good if nothing else.
11 月 20 日
November 20
这本来应该是我骑自行车的一天，因为我的设备应该可以工作，但布莱建议我将设计更改为后面有铰链、前面有独轮手推车轮子的梯子。这可能会解决因自重而坠落的问题。
This was supposed to be my day for cycling because my device was supposed to work, but Bligh suggested I change the design to a ladder with a hinge at the back and a wheelbarrow wheel on the front. That might solve the falling-under-its-own-weight problem.
这意味着： 1. 打破我上周末建造的美丽底座上的环氧树脂粘合。2. 为梯子的前部制作一个轮子组件。这是很多工作，但却是我唯一的机会。布兰科教授曾说过，他花了七年时间开发出一种产品，却被一家德国公司偷走了。“你必须能够改变，”他说。“你投入了如此多的工作，边抱怨边想，‘但是改变需要很长时间......我已经做了很多......我不想改变它。’ 但你必须保持灵活性，愿意忘记你在一条路上花费的所有时间，然后转身走另一条路。否则，你将无法生存。”
So that means: 1. Break epoxy bonds on the beautiful base I built last weekend. 2. Build a wheel assembly for the ladder's front. It was a lot of work but my only chance. Professor Blanco once said that he spent seven years developing a product only to have it stolen by a German company. "You have to be able to change," he said. "You put in so much work and you think as you whine, 'But it will take so long to change ... I did so much already ... I don't want to change it.' But you have to be flexible, willing to forget about all the time you spent going one way, and then turn around and go another way. Otherwise, you will not survive."
4:00 PM 辛迪的机器是一款抓钩发射器，其结构质量首屈一指，甚至是我的。“你能成功吗？” 我问她。
4:00 P.M. Cindy's machine was a grappling hook launcher with a quality of construction second to none, even mine. "Are you going to make it?" I asked her.
“我希望如此，但今晚和明天晚上我几乎整个晚上都会在这里，”她说。
"I hope so, but I'll be here almost all night tonight and tomorrow night," she said.
“这是一台漂亮的机器。你真的应该冲刺让它工作。你有四十八小时，然后你就可以睡觉了，”我说。
"It's a beautiful machine. You should really sprint to make it work. You've got forty-eight hours and then you can sleep," I said.
晚上 9:00 我必须弄清楚如何为愚蠢的梯子前面制作愚蠢的轮子，所以我不得不上楼。那个周日之前举起八磅重的家伙也拿着他的抓钩在那儿。他正在和一位第六课极客交谈。
9:00 P.M. I had to figure out how to make the stupid wheel for the front of the stupid ladder, so I had to go upstairs. The guy who'd pulled up eight pounds the Sunday before was there with his grappling hook. He was talking to a Course Six geek.
“我认为设计是我的强项之一，”他说。
"I think design is one of my strong points," he said.
闭嘴，你这个书呆子。
Shut up, you nerd.
“你的周四不起作用，是吗？看起来不错，但不起作用，”他一边说，一边看着我试验梯子支撑的高度。
"Yours didn't work Thursday, did it? It looks good but it didn't work," he said as he watched me experiment with the heights of my ladder supports.
“这会起作用的，”我说，他的斥责让这件事变得更加迫切。这种事情是判断你是否是A型人的好方法。
"It'll work," I said, and his chiding made it more imperative. This kind of thing is a good way to tell whether you're a Type A.
他继续与他的朋友交谈。“我父亲去了哈佛。我进去了，但我不想去那里。我想如果我去麻省理工学院，我会更像一名工程师。他很失望。”
He continued his conversation with his friend. "My dad went to Harvard. I got in there but I didn't want to go there. I figured I'd be more of an engineer if I went to MIT. He was disappointed."
“我爸爸是麻省理工学院的立方，”另一个说。“他现在在 Draper 工作。你永远猜不到我妈妈去了哪里。”
"My dad's MIT cubed," the other one said. "He works at Draper now. And you'll never guess where my mom went."
“西蒙斯？” 八磅重的家伙说道。
"Simmons?" the eight-pound guy said.
“你说对了。”
"You got it."
“你现在正在和一个西蒙斯女人约会吗？” 抓钩先生问道。
"Are you dating a Simmons woman now?" Mr. Grappling Hook asked.
“没有，但我在那里参加了很多聚会。”
"No, but I go to a lot of parties there."
“不是要转移话题，但这堂课让你和所有熬夜的人变得像家人一样。这很有趣，”我离开房间时 GH 说道。
"Not to change the subject, but this class makes you become like family with all the people you stay up all night with. It's kind of fun," G.H. said as I left the room.
周日早上 1:00。我必须粘住这个轮子，但我不知道如何制作。仅仅决定如何切割一块木头就需要很长时间。此外，所有的钻头都没有标记，所有的尺子和千分尺都被刷过，所以我必须目视一切。另外，我想睡觉。
1:00 A.M. Sunday morning. I've got to glue this wheel but I don't know how to make it. It's taking forever just to decide just how to just cut just one piece of wood. Besides, all the drills are unmarked and all the rulers and micrometers have been swiped so I'll have to eyeball everything. Besides, I want to go to sleep.
跟它对干。坚持下去。只要让事情发挥作用即可。别担心有多好。只要让它发挥作用即可。只需切割木块并将它们粘在一起即可。在砂带磨光机上制作轮子。如果它看起来像《摩登原始人》中的东西又怎么样？它仍然比什么都没有好。
Fight it. Stay with it. Just make the thing work. Don't worry about how well. Just make it work. Just cut the pieces of wood and glue them together. Make the wheel on the belt sander. So what if it looks like something from "The Flintstones"; it's still better than nothing.
4:00 AM 环氧树脂正在凝固，车轮看起来不错。设计变成了我，我也变成了设计。
4:00 A.M. The epoxy was setting and the wheel looked good. The design had become me, and I had become the design.
11 月 21 日
November 21
下午 2:00 距离 26-100 比赛还剩 29 小时。辛迪说：“你听说昨天在哈佛发生的事情了吗？在橄榄球比赛中，在一次达阵后，一根小管子从球场上伸出来。然后一个气球开始膨胀。它是黑色的，上面写着麻省理工学院到处都是。最后它爆炸了，冒出黄色的烟雾。它登上了全国每家报纸的头版。这一定是本世纪的黑客事件。一些二七十岁的人被卷入其中。它。”
2:00 P.m. Twenty-nine hours left before the contest in 26-100. Cindy said, "Did you hear about what happened at Harvard yesterday? At the football game, right after one of the touchdowns, a small pipe sprang out of the field. Then a balloon started inflating. It was black, and it had MIT written all over it. Finally it blew up and yellow smoke came out of it. It was on the front page of every newspaper in the country. It's got to be the hack of the century. Some of the people in two-seventy were in on it."
麻省理工学院得一分。
Score one for MIT.
7:00 PM 辛迪看着她的抓钩发射器。“我很沮丧，”她说。“这是行不通的。这东西会不断分裂，轴承也会掉下来。”
7:00 P.M. Cindy looked at her grappling hook launcher. "I'm so depressed," she said. "It's not going to work. This thing keeps splitting and the bearings fall out."
“为什么不尝试将木头转动 90 度，这样轴承就不会试图将其分开？” 我建议。
"Why don't you try turning the wood 90 degrees so the bearing won't be trying to break it apart?" I suggested.
“这是个好主意。但我的驱动系统还需要一根橡皮筋，但没有像我拥有的那样的橡皮筋了，我必须去 Pritchett 小吃店工作，我已经筋疲力尽了。”
"That's a good idea. But I also need a rubber band for my drive system and there aren't any left like the one I had and I have to go work at the Pritchett snack bar and I'm exhausted."
“听着，你现在不能放弃。如果你这样做了，你永远不会原谅自己，”我说。
"Look, you can't give up now. You'll never forgive yourself if you do," I said.
“我会考虑一下。”
"I'll think about it."
10:30 PM 我和 Ari 聊了麻省理工学院的薪酬政策。我打开办公桌抽屉，发现十根各种尺寸和形状的橡皮筋。我去找普里切特把它们交给辛迪，但她已经下班了。她在自己的宿舍里。
10:30 P.M. I chatted with Ari about pay policy at MIT. I opened my desk drawer and found ten rubber bands of all sizes and shapes. I went to Pritchett to give them to Cindy but she was already off work. She was in her dorm room.
“我找到了这些，并认为它们可能会有所帮助，”我说。她仔细检查了一遍，找到了一个最完美的。
"I found these and thought they might help," I said. She looked through them and found one that was perfect.
“哇哦。这些太棒了。非常感谢。”
"Oh wow. These are great. Thanks a lot."
凌晨 1:10 距离发射还有十八个小时。不要放弃！我把它写在我的实验书里，以让我继续前进。两名学生在工作时戴着随身听。我想知道他们如何才能集中注意力。
1:10 A.M. Eighteen hours to launch. Don't quit! I wrote it in my lab book to keep me going. Two students wore Walkmen while they worked. I wondered how they could concentrate.
凌晨 3:00 开始测试。另外十个人正在测试他们的机器。我的几乎要跳起来了；打火石轮运转良好，但绳索摩擦力太大，导致电机停转。
3:00 A.M. Started testing. Ten other people were testing their machines. Mine almost sprang up; the Flintstone wheel worked nicely, but there was too much friction in the rope and the motor stalled.
凌晨 4:30 辛迪到达测试跑道。
4:30 A.M. Cindy was at the test track.
5:00 AM 尝试弹簧和绳子的不同组合；我把绞盘的绳子拧紧了两次。八磅重的GH先生走了进来。
5:00 A.M. Try different combinations of springs and string; I screwed up the threading of the string for the winch twice. Mr. eight-pound G.H. walked in.
“我以为这里不会有人，”他说。
"I thought there'd be nobody here," he said.
“承认吧，你只是来这里幸灾乐祸的。”我冷笑道。
"Admit it; you just came here to gloat," I sneered.
上午 6:30 试验继续进行，但机器仍然无法工作。在上次试验中，我错误地加载了弹簧。那次试验失败后我必须击中一些东西，而一盒电脑卡是最接近的东西。我试着把它们按顺序放回盒子里，并告诉自己在比赛结束后在盒子上留下一张纸条。7:00，我把八个人留在测试室，给机器喷了一层红色喷漆。
6:30 A.M. Trials proceeded but the machine still didn't work. On the last trial I misloaded the springs. I had to hit something after that trial failed, and a box of computer cards was the closest thing. I tried to put them back in the box in order, and told myself to leave a note on the box some time after the contest. I left eight people in the testing room at 7:00 and gave the machine a coat of red spray paint.
11 月 22 日
November 22
十九年前，约翰·菲茨杰拉德·肯尼迪遇刺身亡。
Nineteen years ago John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated.
上午10点30分，电话响了。是汤姆·布莱。“你的机器运转正常吗？” 他问。“我必须列出今晚的名单，如果在 2:00 之前还没有成功，你就无法进入决赛。”
10:30 A.M. The phone rang. It was Tom Bligh. "Is your machine working?" he asked. "I have to make the list for tonight, and if it doesn't work by 2:00 you won't be in the finals."
“如果你没有打电话，肯定不会成功，因为我会睡一整天。我想我可以在 2:00 之前完成它。” 我回到赛道，四十个人在那里，进行最后一刻的调整、测试，并进行更多最后一刻的调整。“Oh s-”、“Oh f-”以每分钟约二十次的频率发出。
"If you hadn't called, it surely wouldn't have worked because I would have slept all day. I think I can make it work by 2:00." I went back to the track and forty people were there, making lastminute adjustments, testing, and making more last-minute adjustments. "Oh s-," "Oh f-," emanated at a frequency of about twenty times per minute.
我重新进行了前一天晚上中止的审判。几乎，几乎达到了这个规模，布兰科教授印象深刻。汤姆·布莱走进来，另一个灯泡在我头顶亮了起来。“我成为安慰剂之一怎么样？” 我问。“再给我一根弹簧，我的机器就能完美工作了。”
I reran the aborted trial of the night before. It almost, almost reached the scale and Professor Blanco was impressed. Tom Bligh walked in, and another light bulb lit over my head. "How about I be one of the placebos?" I asked. "Let me have one more spring and my machine will work perfectly."
由于比赛是一对一的淘汰赛，就像网球锦标赛一样，因此有些回合的参赛者人数可能是奇数，或者有些缺席。两七十的传统不是让任何人通过“再见”幸运地进入下一轮，而是有一个“安慰剂”，一个可以对抗无对手玩家的条目。就像糖丸一样，安慰剂不是正式的参赛者，但它可能有效。
Since the contest was a one-on-one elimination like in a tennis tournament, some rounds would have an odd number of contestants, or some no-shows. Instead of letting anyone luck into the next round by a "bye," two-seventy tradition was to have a "placebo," an entry that would oppose the opponentless player. Like a sugar pill, the placebo was not an official contestant, but it could be effective.
“这是个好主意，”汤姆说。“我们去吧。”
"That's a good idea," Tom said. "Let's go for it."
下午 4:00 “我和一位爱尔兰姓中尉谈过，想借用消防员的头盔和雨衣参加麻省理工学院的比赛。你能想到那会是谁吗？” 我问消防队长。
4:00 P.M. "I talked with a lieutenant with an Irish last name about borrowing a fireman's helmet and raincoat for a contest at MIT. Can you think of who that would be?" I asked the fire chief.
“我们都是爱尔兰人，”他回答道。“但是到消防站来吧，我们会看看能为你做些什么。”
"We're all Irishmen," he answered. "But come on up to the firehouse and we'll see what we can do for you."
下午 6:45 26-100 号房间已经满员，但我找到了最后一个靠过道的座位。我握着我的机器就像母亲握着她的孩子一样。现场扔了很多纸飞机。
6:45 P.M. Room 26-100 was already full to capacity, but I found one of the last aisle seats. I held my machine like a mother holds her baby. There were a lot of paper airplanes being thrown.
7:00 PM 威尔逊教授让人群安静下来。“在我们开始之前，我想粉碎一个一直在流传的丑陋谣言。我再说一遍，今晚我们的舞台上不会有一个巨大的深红色气球膨胀。” 六百人周围响起一声令人心寒的吼声。“我们将一对一地进行尽可能多的回合才能获得胜利。第一轮将有四十场比赛，第二轮将有二十场比赛，依此类推。”
7:00 P.M. Professor Wilson quieted the crowd. "Before we start, I would like to squash an ugly rumor that has been circulating. There will not, I repeat, there will not be a large crimson balloon inflating on our stage tonight." A chill-breaking roar went about the crowd of six hundred. "We'll go one-on-one for as many rounds as it takes to get a winner. The first round will have forty contests, the second will have twenty, etc."
第一场比赛是一名微型足球运动员将重物踢到秤上和一辆微型卡车在仙人掌下进行的比赛。
The first contest was between a miniature football player that kicked the weight onto the scale and a miniature truck that went under the cactus.
“踢球、踢球、踢球、踢球”观众大喊，轰隆隆！这位小足球运动员用仙人掌的手臂踢了一个胶片盒足球，射门得分，击败了对手。
"Punt, punt, punt, punt," the audience shouted, and boom! the little football player kicked a film canister football for a field goal through the arms of the cactus and beat his opponent.
八场比赛之后，擒抱钩家伙的对手没有出现。“我们需要安慰剂，”威尔逊教授说。我带着我的红银“消防车”、消防员头盔和雨衣走上舞台。
Eight contests later the opponent of the grappling hook guy didn't show. "We need the placebo," Professor Wilson said. I walked to the stage with my red and silver "fire truck" and my fireman's helmet and raincoat.
“pla-cee-boh，pla-cee-boh，pla-cee-boh，”人群高呼。
"Pla-cee-boh, pla-cee-boh, pla-cee-boh," the crowd chanted.
我走到出发坡道。我放下我的设备。我接上了电源线。威尔逊教授打开了电源。
I walked to the starting ramp. I put my device down. I hooked up the power wire. Professor Wilson flipped on the power.
“萨沃克！” 我的弹簧打火石轮消防梯在十分之一秒内就在秤上产生了 1 盎司的偏转。抓钩飞向一边，没有击中篮板，GH 先生的卡车已经沉入水中。
"Thawockkk!" My spring- loaded-Flintstone-wheel- fireengine-ladder put a 1-ounce deflection on the scale in a tenth of a second. The grappling hook shot off to the side, missed the backboard, and Mr. G.H.'s truck was dead in the water.
我看着威尔逊教授。威尔逊教授看着我。
I looked at Professor Wilson. Professor Wilson looked at me.
“那太棒了，佩珀。”
"That was great, Pepper."
章节
C H A P T E R
13
13
自杀无痛苦吗？
Is Suicide Painless?
11 月 21 日
November 21
比赛结束后，我帮助格里菲斯、布莱和威尔逊以 26-100 获胜，并于 11:00 回到我的导师公寓。男孩，我很高兴一切都结束了，我想。现在我可以稍微休息一下，也许直到圣诞节。啊，现在我可以睡觉了。是的，接下来的四个星期可以睡个好觉。
I helped Griffith and Bligh and Wilson lift the pieces of the contest out of 26-100 after it was over and went back to my tutor apartment at 11:00. Boy, am I glad that's over, I thought. Now I can coast for a bit, maybe until Christmas. Ah, now I can sleep. Yes, a nice restful sleep for the next four weeks.
我走过三楼平台上的大富翁游戏，他们说：“很棒的梯子，Pepper。太棒了。”
I walked past the Monopoly game on the third floor landing and they said, "Great ladder, Pepper. Wicked awesome."
哎呀，没什么。
Aw shucks, it was nothing.
Campagnolo 自行车零部件的工程总监就在观众席上。他是威尔逊的朋友，”黛安娜说。“也许你可以帮他找一份工作。”
The engineering director of Campagnolo cycling components was in the audience. He's a buddy of Wilson," Dianne said. "Maybe you can hit him up for a job."
“是的，那就太好了。也许我会尝试一下。”
"Yeah, that'd be great. Maybe I'll try that."
克维尔，克维尔，克维尔。
Kvel, kvel, kvel.
我祝贺辛迪的表现；她的抓钩进入了半决赛。
I congratulated Cindy on her performance; her grappling hook made it to the semifinals.
“哦，顺便说一句，”她说，“约翰·多尔西在你的门下留了一张纸条。他说这很重要。”
"Oh, by the way," she said, "John Dorsey left a note under your door. He said it was important."
它总是有一些东西，不是吗？如果这不是一回事那就是另一回事了。就像 Gilda Radner 的祖母 Nanna Rosanne Rosanna Danna 经常说的那样。
It's always something, isn't it. If it's not one thing it's another thing. Just like Gilda Radner's grandmother Nanna Rosanne Rosanna Danna always used to say.
“请见我。如果您在 11:30 之前到达，请来我的公寓。”
"Please see me. Come by my apartment if you're in by 11:30."
不好了。也许他们想让我离开，我将不得不重新开始购买杂货并支付租金。我走到多尔西一家位于克拉夫茨的公寓。
Oh, no. Maybe they want me out and I'll have to start buying groceries and paying rent again. I walked over to the Dorseys' apartment in Crafts.
“嗨，约翰。有什么事吗？”
"Hi, John. What's up?"
“我是史蒂夫·沃森，”约翰说。“他有严重的情绪问题。他抑郁、孤独，已经开始担心期末考试了。精神科医生办公室和一位宗教顾问都和他谈过，他们认为他已经快要好转了。他几乎在三年内完成了本科学业。”已经半年了，他还不到十九岁。我想他正在意识到自己没有生活。”
"It's Steve Watson," John said. "He's having serious emotional troubles. He's depressed and lonely and already worried about finals. The psychiatrist's office and one of the religious counselors have both talked to him, and they think he's close to rounding the bend. He's almost finished his undergraduate work in three and a half years and he's not even nineteen yet. I think he's in the process of realizing he doesn't have a life."
十九岁时，他出生在古巴导弹危机和肯尼迪遇刺之间的某个时间。
At nineteen, he was born some time between the Cuban missile crisis and Kennedy's assassination.
“哎呀，太可怕了，”我说。“史蒂夫·沃森是谁？”
"Gee, that's terrible," I said. "Who's Steve Watson?"
“他是你报名的学生之一。你还没有认识他们每一个人吗？这是你导师工作的一部分，你知道。无论如何，我们希望你留意他，也许可以招募一些他大厅入口处的学生也要做同样的事情，让他们对他友好，你对他友好，试着让他觉得他过去的三年半并不是完全的情感真空。”
"He's one of the students on your entry. Haven't you gotten to know every one of them? That's part of your tutor job, you know. Anyway, we'd like you to keep an eye on him, maybe recruit some of the students in the entry on his hall to do the same, have them be friendly to him, you be friendly to him, try to make him feel that his last three and a half years were not a total emotional vacuum."
“我会尽我所能，约翰。嘿，我已经尽了最大努力去了解每个人。好吧，也许不是通过名字，但无论如何，通过面孔。我的意思是，在每次学习休息之前，我都会张贴标志然后去敲每一扇门。如果这个孩子总是在他的实验室里，我能帮忙吗？
"I'll do what I can, John. And hey, I've done my best to get to know everyone. Well, maybe not by name, but by face anyway. I mean before every study break, I put the signs up and then go and knock on every door. Can I help it if this kid is always at his lab?"
“不，你不能，而且我相信你已经尽力了。最主要的事情是照顾史蒂夫。我在这里当舍监已经三年了，还没有发生过自杀事件。” ，如果我能帮忙的话，只要我在这里，就不会有任何帮助。”
"No, you can't, and I'm sure you're doing your best. The main thing to do is to take care of Steve. I've been housemaster here for three years and there hasn't been a suicide yet, and if I can help it there won't be any for as long as I'm here."
“对我来说也是如此，约翰。你对我应该如何与他交谈有什么建议吗？”
"Ditto for me, John. Do you have any suggestions for how I should talk to him?"
“尽量表现得自然一点，别让人觉得你在关注他。试着对他感兴趣的事情感兴趣。我听说他喜欢下棋，也许你可以和他下棋或者鼓励其他学生也这样做。”
"Just try to be natural; don't let on that you're keeping an eye on him. Try taking an interest in things that are interesting to him. I heard he likes to play chess. Maybe you can have a game with him or encourage the other students to do the same."
我想，我这个拿薪水的员工，还得拿钱才能对这个孩子好，这真是太糟糕了。其他人没有时间或意愿。每所学校都有孤独者，但麻省理工学院对他们有着巨大的吸引力。当你把八个孤独的人放在宿舍地板上时，你会得到什么？八个非常孤独的人。
It's really too bad that I, a paid staffer, have to be paid to be nice to this kid, I thought. Nobody else has the time or the inclination. There are loners at every school but MIT is a magnet for them. And what do you get when you put eight loners on a dormitory floor? Eight very lonely people.
12月11日
December 11
在度过了一个宁静的感恩节之后，在假期后的一个半星期里多次尝试找到他之后，我遇到了史蒂夫。他的门上有一个记事板，上面写着：“我应该自杀吗？” 在它的下面有一个“是”栏和一个“否”栏。“否”下有七个井号标记，“是”下有两个井号标记。有人在其中一个“是”标记的一侧写下了“跳，跳”。底部是别人的手写的，“生活是个婊子，然后你就死了。” 知道人们关心他，史蒂夫一定很高兴。
After a restful Thanksgiving, and after several attempts at finding him during the week and a half following the vacation, I met Steve. There was a noteboard on his door that said, "Should I kill myself?" and beneath it there was a Yes column and a No column. There were seven hash marks under No and two under Yes. Somebody'd written, "Jump, jump" to the side of one of the Yes marks. On the bottom someone else's hand had written, "Life's a bitch, and then you die." It must have made Steve happy to know that people cared.
史蒂夫皮肤苍白，痤疮逐渐消退，下巴上有一点棕色的胡须，还有小胡子。他身材苗条、高大、安静。他当然很安静。这就是为什么他不认识任何人。
Steve had pale skin, a receding case of acne, a little brown beard on his chin, and a mustache. He was slim, tall, and quiet. Of course he was quiet; that's why he didn't know anyone.
“嗨，”当他打开门时我说。“我是 Pepper White，导师。我还没有机会见到每个人，但我正在努力确保我见到每个人，并让大家知道考试周期间每天晚上都会有一个学习休息时间……如果你想过来聊天，请随时敲我的门。”
"Hi," I said when he opened the door. "I'm Pepper White, the tutor. I haven't had a chance to meet everyone yet, but I'm trying to make sure I meet everyone and let you all know that there will be a study break every night during exam week. And if you ever want to come by and chat, feel free to knock on my door."
“他们让你这么做的，不是吗？” 他说。
"They put you up to this, didn't they?" he said.
“做什么？你说，那儿有国际象棋吗？我也喜欢下棋。也许我们什么时候可以比赛一下。”
"Up to what? Say, is that a chess set there? I like to play chess, too. Maybe we can have a match sometime."
抑郁症一定削弱了他的抵抗力，削弱了他从环境中吸收的愤世嫉俗。“当然，那太好了，”他说。他露出笑容，显然很感谢任何人提供的友谊。
The depression must have weakened his resistance, the cynicism that he'd absorbed from the environment. "Sure, that would be nice," he said. He cracked a smile, apparently thankful for any offer of friendship.
“明天下午1点30分怎么样？” 我问。
"How about tomorrow at 1:30 in the afternoon?" I asked.
“好的。”
"OK."
黛安开始用一个真正的保龄球和空的两升姜汁汽水瓶作为瓶瓶打保龄球。咚！球击中了史蒂夫家旁边的厚重橡木门。十个别针中的三个落了下来。
Dianne started bowling with a real bowling ball and empty two-liter ginger ale bottles as the pins. Thunk! The ball hit the heavy oak door next to Steve's. Three of the ten pins went down.
“嘿，你能把它放在那里吗？” 我说。
"Hey, can you keep it down there?" I said.
黛安娜反驳道：“如果我不练习的话，我怎么能在这方面做得更好呢？”
Dianne retorted, "How am I going to get any better at this if I don't practice?"
“黛安，你认识史蒂夫吗？他主修数学和物理。你上过一些物理课，不是吗？”
"Say, Dianne, do you know Steve? He's a math and physics major. You've taken some physics classes, haven't you?"
“哦，是的，当然，好吧，”黛安说，很快就明白了我的暗示。“你不是在我的相对论课上吗，史蒂夫？那个法国教授，他真的很会讲课，不是吗？我在黑洞史瓦西半径的材料上遇到了一点麻烦。你能帮我概念化它吗？” ？”
"Oh, yeah, sure, OK," Dianne said, quickly figuring out what I was hinting. "Aren't you in my relativity class, Steve? That Professor French, he can really lecture, can't he? I'm having a little trouble with the material on the Schwarzschild radius for black holes. Could you help me conceptualize it?"
“这是一个非常简单的概念，”史蒂夫说，他的信心因有机会向某人解释而增强。“数学有点复杂——我的意思是，它是微分方程的奇点解——但这个想法是，当你接近黑洞，并且在时空连续体中距离它一定距离时，就会有无路可退。”
"It's a pretty easy concept," Steve said, his confidence growing at the chance to explain something to someone. "The mathematics is a little hairy-I mean, it's a singular point solution for a differential equation-but the idea is that as you approach a black hole, and you come within a certain distance of it in the space-time continuum, there's no turning back."
“你的意思是你有点陷入其中，就像在科幻电影中一样？” 黛安娜问道。
"You mean you sort of get sucked into it, like in a sci-fi movie?" Dianne asked.
“是的，就是这样，”史蒂夫说。“你了解双胞胎的问题吗？其中一个离开地球，以接近光速旅行，六十年后才回来，而他的哥哥已经六十岁了，而他却没有？”
"Yeah, that's it," Steve said. "Did you understand the problem about the twins, one of whom leaves earth and travels at close to the speed of light and he comes back sixty years later, and his brother has aged sixty years but he hasn't?"
“当然，”黛安娜说，“这就是狭义相对论，我想我已经掌握了它。”
"Sure," Dianne said, "that's special relativity, and I think I've got a handle on that."
黛安开始解释这个问题，我想她暂时已经替史蒂夫解决了，所以我原谅自己说：“明天 1 点 30 分那场国际象棋比赛见，好吗，史蒂夫？”
Dianne started to explain the problem, and I figured she had Steve covered for the time being so I excused myself and said, "I'll see you at 1:30 tomorrow for that chess game, OK, Steve?"
12月12日
December 12
星期日。下午1点30分，史蒂夫还在睡觉。当你抑郁的时候，你只想睡觉，而当你在麻省理工学院时，你几乎没有时间睡觉，因此你只想睡觉，你的身体感觉和你在麻省理工学院时一样。抑郁，很难判断你是抑郁还是只是因为工作而感到疲倦。我反复敲门，然后在外面等着。来吧，史蒂夫，去开门。
Sunday. Steve was still asleep at 1:30 in the afternoon. When you're depressed, all you want to do is sleep, and when you're at MIT, you have very little time to sleep, and therefore all you want to do is sleep and your body feels the same as when you're depressed and it's hard to tell whether you're depressed or just tired from all the work. I knocked repeatedly and waited outside. Come on, Steve, answer the door.
大约五分钟后，他终于回答了。他睡眼惺忪地说：“哦，是的，我忘记了我们的国际象棋比赛。我们可以改天再做吗？我将在 2:00 在朗克尔对弈一个人。不过还是谢谢你叫醒我。否则我可能会错过比赛。”
He finally answered after about five minutes. He was groggyeyed, and said, "Oh, yeah, I forgot about our chess game. Can we do it some other time? I'm going to play a guy in Runkle at 2:00. Thanks for waking me up, though. I might have missed my match otherwise."
“当然，我们的比赛不着急。祝你的搭档比赛愉快。”我回答道，很高兴他有一个朋友。
"Sure, there's no hurry for our match. Have a good match with your partner," I answered, glad that he had a friend.
12月13日
December 13
周一晚上，在洛布德尔的自助餐厅，史蒂夫独自坐在我旁边的桌子旁，然后看到了我，拿起他的托盘并把它带到了我的桌子上。“学习怎么样？” 我问。
Monday evening at Lobdell's cafeteria Steve sat down by himself at the table next to me, then saw me, and picked up his tray and brought it over to my table. "How's the studying going?" I asked.
“哦，很好。不过周四和周五会很艰难。周四早上我有一场决赛，周四下午有一场决赛，周五早上还有一场决赛。”
"Oh, pretty good. Thursday and Friday are going to be rough, though. I have a final on Thursday morning, a final on Thursday afternoon, and a final on Friday morning."
“哇哦。三连胜。我知道这有多难。一年前我也发生过同样的事情。你昨天的棋局怎么样？” 我问。
"Whoa. Three in a row. I know how hard that is. The same thing happened to me a year ago. How'd your chess game go yesterday?" I asked.
“哦，不错，不过没持续多久。我用了二十三步，半个多小时就将死了他。”
"Oh, pretty good, but it didn't last all that long. I checkmated him in twenty-three moves, a little over half an hour."
友情就这么多。史蒂夫吃得很快，比我更快，就像他在考虑考试而紧张一样。速度太快了，小面包片卡在了他的胡子里。在我吃完沙拉之前，他就把盘子清理干净了。他看起来很紧张，我不想妨碍他工作，所以我说：“嘿，别让我耽误你。如果你需要继续学习，可以随时回到图书馆，或者无论在哪里。”
So much for camaraderie. Steve ate fast, faster than I, like he was nervous thinking about his exams. So fast that little pieces of bread got caught in his beard. He cleaned his plate before I finished my salad. He seemed tense, and I didn't want to keep him from his work, so I said, "Hey, don't let me keep you. If you need to get back to studying, feel free to head back to the library or wherever."
他看起来很受伤，就像我试图摆脱他一样，而事实上他可能想坐下来聊除了考试以外的任何事情，直到自助餐厅关门。但他不知道如何用口头方式表达这一点，而我有点太慢了，无法从他的肢体语言中理解这一点。
He looked hurt, like I was trying to get rid of him, when in fact he probably wanted to sit and chat about anything but exams until the cafeteria closed. But he didn't know how to communicate that verbally, and I was a little too slow to pick up on it from his body language.
他拿起托盘，温顺地说：“呃，是的，也许我最好回去学习了。” 到时候让他坐下就太尴尬了，我就让他走了。
He picked up his tray and said meekly, "Uh, yeah, maybe I better get back to my studying." By then it was too awkward to ask him to sit back down, so I let him go.
12月14日
December 14
周二晚上，第一天考试后。二七十分象征性地进行了一次期末考试，比赛结束后小菜一碟，布莱给了我一个A。加上暑假大卫·米勒的系统动力学和控制中的A，取消了我第一学期的两个C，使我的总体平均水平是相当不错的B。如果我能保持不断提高的趋势，也许到博士资格考试（又名资格赛）开始时，他们会把我的第一个学期注销为我的第一个学期，我会有机会在麻省理工学院，博士，金钱。
Tuesday evening, after Day 1 of exams. Two seventy had a token final exam, a piece of cake after the contest, and Bligh gave me an A. That, plus the A in David Miller's System Dynamics and Controls for the summer, canceled my two C's from the first term, making my overall average a respectable B. If I could keep up the improving trend, maybe by the time the doctoral qualifying exams (a.k.a. qualifiers) rolled around they'd write off my first term to being my first term, and I'd have a shot at M-I-T, P-H-D, M-O-N-E-Y.
我在导师公寓的客厅里放松下来，悠闲地浏览着机械工程系的通讯，看到了一个有趣的项目。
I relaxed in my tutor apartment living room, read through the Mechanical Engineering department newsletter in a leisurely fashion, and saw an intriguing item.
“EE、ME、物理系的学生希望参加全国电视节目的永动机揭秘大赛。将选出三名个人与来自伯克利的三人团队进行比赛。比赛将于一月在伯克利举行；往返机票并提供住宿。请用不超过 1,000 字的文字向位于 Watertown 的 Chedd Angier Production Company 提出申请。”
"EE, ME, Physics students wanted to participate in Perpetual Motion Machine Debunking Contest for national television show. Three individuals will be selected to compete against a three-person team from Berkeley. Contest will be held in Berkeley in January; round trip air fare and accommodations will be provided. Apply in no more than 1,000 words to Chedd Angier Production Company, Watertown."
一月份的伯克利比波士顿宜人得多。值得一试。如果我被选中的话，这将是旧简历中的一个非常好的条目。没有指定最短应用程序长度，而且我很确定无论如何我都不会得到它，所以我会在五分钟内完成一些工作。
Berkeley is a lot more pleasant than Boston in January. It's worth a shot. It would be a really nice entry in the old resume if I'm selected. There's no minimum application length specified, and I'm pretty sure I won't get it anyway, so I'll crank something out in five minutes.
为什么我想成为一名电视明星
Why I Want to Be a TV Star
1.我想变得富有。
1. I want to be rich.
2.我想出名。
2. I want to be famous.
3. 我想成为麻省理工学院的教授，这可能会有所帮助。
3. I want to be a professor at MIT and this might help.
4. 从小我就对永动机很着迷，这对我来说是一个梦想成真。
4. Ever since I was a child I've had a fascination with perpetual motion machines and this would be a dream come true for me.
5.我已经知道答案了。不可能证明某个东西是永动机，因为无论它运行多久，总会有更多的永动机，在此期间你无法知道它是否还会运行，因为你还没有到达那里。
5. I already know the answer. It's impossible to prove something's a perpetual motion machine because however long it runs there's always going to be some more perpetuity during which you can't know whether it will still run because you aren't there yet.
12月19日
December 19
好了，工作完成了；我们做到了。史蒂夫已经通过了考试周。他很快就会回家，我就可以真正放松了。下午 6:10 电话响了。
Well, the job is done; we made it. Steve's made it through exam week. He'll be home in no time and I can really relax. 6:10 P.M. The phone rang.
“你好，我是沃森先生；我是史蒂夫的父亲。他本应今晚回家，但他没有上飞机。多尔西教授外出了，但他给了我你的电话号码。你能试着找到我儿子吗？” ？” 他的声音有些颤抖，似乎在担心最坏的情况发生。
"Hello, this is Mr. Watson; I'm Steve's father. He was supposed to be home this evening and he wasn't on the plane. Professor Dorsey is out but he gave me your number. Can you try to find my son?" His voice was shaky, as if he feared the worst.
“我确信他很好，先生。我昨天见过他，他看起来很好。我会去检查他的房间；然后我会把要洗的衣服放进去，然后我会再次检查他的房间。我会尝试的找到他并让他给你打电话。”
"I'm sure he's fine, sir. I saw him yesterday and he seemed fine. I'll go and check his room; then I'll put my laundry in and then I'll check his room again. I'll try to find him and have him give you a call."
统计分数最多为三个是和八个否。我敲了敲门。“嘿，史蒂夫，你在里面吗？” 我更加用力地敲门。“嘿，史蒂夫，来吧，伙计，把门打开。你父亲打电话来了，他很担心你。”
The tally mark was up to three yeses and eight nos. I knocked on the door. "Hey, Steve, are you in there?" I knocked on the door harder. "Hey, Steve, come on man; open up the door. Your father called and he's worried about you."
没有答案。我去把洗好的衣服放进洗衣机。
No answer. I went to put my laundry in the washer.
当我从东校区洗衣房走回来时，我看到史蒂夫的灯亮着。以前每次我去看他但他都不在那儿时，灯就灭了。如果灯亮了，他一定在里面。
I saw that Steve's light was on when I walked back from the East Campus laundry. Every time I'd checked on him before and he wasn't there, the light was off. If the light was on he had to be in there.
敲敲敲。“来吧，史蒂夫。别再玩游戏了，伙计。” 我的心脏开始跳动得很快，就像我的实验罐中压力增大时一样。敲敲敲。没有答案。多尔西一家周末出去了，所以我去实验室给一位院长打电话。
Knock knock knock. "Come on, Steve. Quit playing games, man." My heart began to beat fast, like when the pressure built in the tank for my experiments. Knock knock knock. No answer. The Dorseys were gone for the weekend so I went to the lab to call one of the deans.
就在迪恩·罗宾斯出发去参加圣诞晚会之前我遇见了他。“是的，”他说，“听起来可能是紧急情况。也许你最好给比尔·汤普森打电话，让他过来。他是值班的校园院长。这是他的电话号码。”
I caught Dean Robbins just before he left for a Christmas party. "Yes," he said, "it sounds like it could be an emergency. Maybe you better call Bill Thompson and have him come over. He's the on-campus dean on call. Here's his number."
迪恩·汤普森也正在去参加圣诞晚会的路上。“我马上过来，你先去叫校警吧？他们有万能钥匙，可以打开他的房间。”
Dean Thompson was also on his way out to a Christmas party. "I'll be right over. Why don't you go ahead and call the campus police? They've got the master keys and can open up his room."
我在史蒂夫的房间前遇到了校园警察，其中有两个。其中一人掏出一枚戒指，戒指上大约有一百把钥匙，道：“应该是其中一把。”
I met the campus policemen, two of them, in front of Steve's room. One of them pulled out a ring with about a hundred keys on it and said, "It should be one of these."
我的心脏继续跳动，就像在细胞里跳动一样。校园警察尝试了一把钥匙。它不起作用。其他。其他。十把钥匙。十五。16 号是正确的。天哪，我希望这孩子还活着。
My heart continued to pump like it pumped in the cell. The campus policeman tried one key. It didn't work. Another. Another. Ten keys. Fifteen. Number 16 was the right one. God, I hope this kid's alive.
灯还亮着。史蒂夫躺在床上。床边的地板上有一叠阁楼杂志，上面放着半加仑的空杰克丹尼啤酒。校园警察摸了史蒂夫的脉搏。
The light was still on. Steve was lying on his bed. An empty half-gallon of Jack Daniels was on the floor next to the bed, on top of a stack of Penthouse magazines. The campus policeman felt for Steve's pulse.
史蒂夫醒了。他目光呆滞，语无伦次，深陷其中。“这到底是怎么回事？” 他问。校园警察建议我单独和史蒂夫谈谈。
Steve woke up. He was glassy-eyed, semicoherent, in the depths of the depths. "What ... the ... hell ... is ... going on?" he asked. The campus policeman suggested that I talk to Steve alone for a while.
“听着，史蒂夫，你父亲非常担心你。你没有开门，所以我别无选择，只能打电话给校园警察。我们只是想确保你没事。”
"Look, Steve, your father's worried sick about you. You didn't answer your door, so I didn't have any choice but to call the campus police. We just wanted to make sure you were all right."
“我很好，很好，”他说得更连贯了一些。“你以为你闯进我的房间到底是谁？”
"I'm all right, all right," he said a little more coherently. "Who the hell do you think you are busting into my room like that?"
我还没来得及回答，迪安·汤普森就到了。“发生什么事了，史蒂夫？” 他语气坚定，就像直布罗陀的岩石一样，但又带着一丝同情。“那你想对此做什么？”
Dean Thompson arrived before I had a chance to answer. "What's going on, Steve?" he said firmly, like the rock of Gibraltar, yet with some compassion. "And what do you want to do about it?"
“这些人刚刚闯进了我的房间。我想看看他们的搜查令，”史蒂夫说。
"These people just broke into my room. I want to see their search warrant," Steve said.
迪安·汤普森要求在大厅见我。“听着，”他说，“我要去给他一直在谈话的精神科医生打电话，我要你去拿史蒂夫的家庭电话号码，我们会和他的父亲谈谈。”
Dean Thompson asked to see me in the hall. "Listen," he said, "I'm going to go call the psychiatrist that he's been talking to, and I want you to go get Steve's home phone number and we'll have a talk with his father."
迪恩·汤普森回到史蒂夫的房间。“怀特先生和我要离开几分钟。为了您的安全，我请求校园警察在我们离开期间留在附近。”
Dean Thompson went back into Steve's room. "Mr. White and I are going to be away for a few minutes. For your own safety, I'm requesting that the campus policeman stay nearby while we're gone."
史蒂夫关上门。当我们回来时它被锁了。校警又打开了门。史蒂夫正在和他父亲通电话。
Steve slammed the door. It was locked when we returned. The campus policeman opened it again. Steve was on the phone with his father.
“史蒂夫，我想和你父亲谈谈，”迪恩·汤普森说。“你能把手机递给我吗？”
"Steve, I'd like to talk with your father," Dean Thompson said. "Will you hand me the phone?"
史蒂夫挂断了电话。“不。”
Steve hung up. "No."
“把电话给我，史蒂夫，”迪恩·汤普森说。
"Give me the phone, Steve," Dean Thompson said.
“不，”更加挑衅地说道。
"No," more defiantly.
Dean Thompson用两只手握住电话，将其从Steve的身体上拉开，但Steve抓住了它，倒向Dean Thompson。史蒂夫恢复平衡，试图把手机拉回来，但他的手滑倒了，手机壳下面的螺丝割伤了他的拇指，他尖叫起来。
Dean Thompson put two hands on the phone and pulled it away from Steve's body but Steve held on to it and fell toward Dean Thompson. Steve regained his balance, tried to pull the phone back, but his hands slipped and the screw under the case cut his thumb and he screamed.
“你割伤了我。你割伤了我。我会起诉你，”他说，然后把拇指放在嘴里吸掉血滴。
"You cut me. You cut me. I'll sue you," he said and then put his thumb in his mouth to suck away the drops of blood.
“佩珀，你有这个号码吗？” 迪安·汤普森问道，然后他给沃森先生打了电话。
"Do you have that number, Pepper?" Dean Thompson asked, and he called Mr. Watson.
“是的，沃森先生，我是麻省理工学院的比尔·汤普森。史蒂夫很沮丧，但我认为他不会有任何伤害自己的危险。” 他停了下来，转向史蒂夫。“你想让我们做什么，史蒂夫？”
"Yes, Mr. Watson, this is Bill Thompson at MIT. Steve's upset but I don't think he's in any danger of hurting himself." He paused and turned to Steve. "What do you want us to do, Steve?"
“我希望你别打扰我。从现在起二十四小时后，我将成为这个地方的产物，而不是这里的问题。”史蒂夫说道，语气变得温和了一些。我从导师的急救箱里拿出绷带给了他。
"I want you to leave me alone. Twenty-four hours from now I'll be a product of this place, not a problem for it," Steve said, a little mellowed. I gave him a bandage from my tutor's first-aid kit.
“您希望我们做什么，华生先生？” 汤普森儿子问道。“是的，如果你愿意的话，我们明天可以安排一辆出租车送他去机场。现在，怀特先生会花一些时间陪伴他。怀特先生和我都有圣诞派对要去参加，所以接下来的两三个小时我们会很忙，但是怀特先生会在史蒂夫聚会回来后与他联系。史蒂夫，你可以吗？
"What would you like us to do, Mr. Watson?" Dean Thomp son asked. "Yes, we can arrange for a taxi to take him to the airport tomorrow if you'd like. And for now, Mr. White will spend some time with him. Both Mr. White and I have Christmas parties to go to, so we'll be busy for the next two or three hours, but Mr. White will check in with Steve after he returns from his party. Is that all right with you, Steve?"
“嗯？哦。是的，当然，”他在床上回答。
"Huh? Oh. Yeah, sure," he answered from his bed.
迪恩·汤普森（Dean Thompson）结束了与沃森先生的电话，并要求再次到大厅与我交谈。
Dean Thompson finished the phone call with Mr. Watson and asked to talk to me in the hall again.
“就和他聊天吧。也许和他下一盘棋。试着让他高兴一点。”
"Just chat with him. Maybe play a game of chess with him. Try to cheer him up a little bit."
“好的，先生，我会尽力而为。”我回答道，然后迪恩·汤普森就离开了。
"OK, sir, I'll do my best," I answered, and Dean Thompson left.
典当给国王四。史蒂夫是黑人；我是白人。
Pawn to king four. Steve was black; I was white.
“那么留在这里还有什么意义呢？” 他修辞地说。
"So what's the point of staying here?" he said rhetorically.
“嗯，你在学习上投入了大量的时间，而且你已经快完成学业了，你的父母也在你的学习上投入了很多钱——我的意思是，他们本可以用现金购买一套度假屋。”我们花了很多时间让你完成这里的任务——而你才刚刚开始能够运用你的知识。”
"Well, you've invested a lot of time in your studies, and you're almost done, and your parents have invested a lot of money in your studies-I mean they could have bought a vacation home for cash for what they've spent to put you through here-and you're just at the beginning of being able to put your knowledge to use."
“是啊。那么运用这些知识有什么意义呢？”
"Right. So what's the point of putting the knowledge to use?"
“进行良好的数学研究或编写高效的计算机程序。扩展知识的前沿。”
"To do good mathematics research or to write efficient computer programs. To extend the frontiers of knowledge."
“那么扩展知识边界有什么意义呢？”
"And what's the point of extending the frontiers of knowledge?"
“这样才能开发出改善生活质量的产品。”
"So that products can be developed to improve the quality of life."
“哦，我想你是指电子游戏和高清电视。这就是你所说的提高生活质量的意思吗？”
"Oh, you mean like video games and high-definition television, I suppose. Is that what you mean by improving quality of life?"
也许我也需要喝一杯威士忌。
Maybe I need a swig of that whiskey, too.
“好吧，我们已经超出了我的专业范围。也许你应该和一位部长或你的精神科医生谈谈这件事。”
"Well, we're getting out of my realm of expertise. Maybe you should talk to a minister or your psychiatrist about it."
“我和他们都聊过，他们完全矛盾，这让我更加困惑和沮丧。你想知道别的吗？你知道有些人的梦是黑白的，而有些人的梦是彩色的吗？你知道我梦见什么吗？”
"I've been talking to both, and they totally contradict each other and it just makes me more confused and depressed. You want to know something else? You know how some people dream in black and white, and some people dream in color? You know what I dream in?"
“不，什么？”
"No, what?"
“方程式。就好像我的意识或潜意识中没有空间容纳其他任何东西。从中没有任何缓解。没有逃脱。我讨厌这个该死的地方。”
"Equations. It's like there's no room left in my conscious or my subconscious for anything else. There's no relief from it. There's no escape. I Hate This Fucking Place."
“我知道你的感受。但你已经通过了。我相信你的考试成绩很好。你的职业生涯很美好。坚持住——哦，对不起，选择不好。”试着再放松一天，回家，几天之内你就会忘记这个地方，感到轻松并受到良好的教育。”
"I know how you feel. But you've made it through. I'm sure you did great on your exams. You've got a great career ahead of you. Just hang in there-oh, excuse me, poor choice of words. Just try to relax for another day, go home, and you'll forget this place and feel relaxed and well-educated in just a few days."
“将死，”他说。“十二招，你做得不错。”
"Checkmate," he said. "Twelve moves. You did pretty well."
11点20分我从聚会回来。我给史蒂夫带来了一品脱巧克力哈根达斯和一包薄荷米兰诺斯。这种结合总是能帮助我振奋精神。我想我们可以一起看《周六夜现场》，同时分享好吃的东西。
I returned from the party at 11:20. I brought Steve a pint of chocolate Haagen-Daz and a package of Mint Milanos. That combination had always helped to lift my spirits. I figured we'd watch "Saturday Night Live" together while we split the goodies.
他的门上贴着一张《顶层公寓》的剪报。杂志文章中的粗体字是：“当有人搞砸了你时，你有办法让他付出代价。我会更具体，但当我这样做时，这会失去乐趣。”
There was a clipping from Penthouse on his door. In bold print from a magazine article: "When somebody screws you up, you have ways to make him pay. I'd be more specific but that would take the fun out of it when I do it."
敲敲敲。“史蒂夫，你在里面吗？” 敲敲。“史蒂夫，是我，佩珀；我给你带来了一些冰淇淋和饼干。” 敲敲。
Knock knock knock. "Steve, are you in there?" Knock knock. "Steve, it's me, Pepper; I brought you some ice cream and cookies." Knock knock.
没有答案。不好了。我们不应该丢下他一个人。但他是个成年人了；他是一名大学毕业生；我们必须给他空间，给予他权利。
No answer. Oh no. We shouldn't have left him by himself. But he's an adult; he's a college graduate; we had to give him his space, accord him his rights.
“你好，迪安·汤普森，我是佩珀。他的门上贴着一张奇怪的纸条，我敲门时他没有回应。”
"Hello, Dean Thompson, it's Pepper here. There's a strange note on his door and he doesn't answer when I knock."
“再给CP打电话，”他说。“我马上过去。”
"Call the CPs again," he said. "I'll be right over."
我打电话给CP，把哈根达斯放进冰箱，下楼，再次敲门。仍然没有答案。高血压又来了。CP们快点吧；他可能只剩下几口空气了。
I called the CPs, put the Haagen-Daz in the freezer, went downstairs, and knocked again. Still no answer. High blood pressure time again. Hurry up, CPs; he may have just a few breaths of air left.
这次CP们更快了，他们知道哪个是正确的钥匙。灯亮着，但房间里空无一人，史蒂夫床边还有半加仑杰克丹尼啤酒。迪恩·汤普森来了。“我们不应该让他独自一人，”他说。“中士，呼叫调度员，让部队进入戒备状态。覆盖所有楼梯间的顶部、绿色大楼和麦克格雷格的屋顶。派两辆车在 Mem. Drive 以及哈佛桥和朗费罗桥上巡逻。佩珀，你知道史蒂夫在做什么吗？”看起来你为什么不和警官一起开车呢？我会在查尔斯河这边的人行道上走来走去。”
The CPs were quicker this time, and they knew which was the right key. The light was on but the room was empty, as was a second half-gallon of Jack Daniels by Steve's bed. Dean Thompson arrived. "We should never have left him alone," he said. "Sergeant, call the dispatcher and put the force on alert. Cover the tops of all the stairwells, the roofs of the Green Building and Macgregor. Have two cars patrol Mem. Drive and the Harvard and Longfellow bridges. Pepper, you know what Steve looks likewhy don't you drive with the sergeant here. I'll walk up and down the sidewalk on this side of the Charles."
针对这种意外情况有一个计划。
There was a plan for this contingency.
我和中士一起开车。我们都很安静。我记得失败的经历：放弃物理，没有跟上自行车比赛，离开麻省理工学院的斯蒂芬妮，一个学期获得了两个 C。不过，我也有自己的生活。这一直让我坚持下去。
I drove with the sergeant. We were both quiet. I remembered failures: giving up physics, not keeping up in bicycle races, leaving Stephanie, two C's in one term at MIT. I had a life, though. That always kept me going.
中士在凯悦酒店拐了个U型转弯。“你知道什么祈祷吗，孩子？” 他问。
The sergeant pulled a U-tum by the Hyatt. "You know any prayers, kid?" he asked.
“我小时候学过《诗篇第二十三篇》，”我说。
"I learned the Twenty-third Psalm when I was a kid," I said.
“你为什么不尝试对自己说出来，而不是大声说出来。我也会做同样的事情。”
"Why don't you try saying it to yourself, not out loud. I'll do the same thing."
“好的。”
"OK."
查尔斯河冰冷、冰雪覆盖的水域旁没有人，海堤上方的人行道上也没有人。我们慢慢地来回行驶，偶尔停下来眺望冰面。我的脉搏下降了，但我的胸部和胃部感觉失重，就像坐过山车坠落时一样。我试图记住诗篇的歌词。
There was no one beside the still, frozen, snow-covered waters of the Charles, no one on the footpath above the seawall. We drove back and forth slowly, stopped occasionally to look out across the ice. My pulse rate went down, but my chest and my stomach felt weightless, like when a roller coaster plunges. I tried to remember the words to the psalm.
第七次驶过帆船馆时，调度员通过广播说：“我们找到了他。他没事。他一直在学生中心的电视室里。”
On the seventh drive past the sailing pavilion, the dispatcher said over the radio, "We found him. He's all right. He's been in the TV room at the student center the whole time."
我和中士开车去了学生中心，在那里我们见到了史蒂夫、迪安·汤普森和警察们。《周六夜现场》快结束了。
The sergeant and I drove to the student center, where we met Steve, Dean Thompson, and the CPs. "Saturday Night Live" was almost over.
“史蒂夫，今晚我们会让你在医务室睡觉，接受观察。然后校园警察明天早上会帮你收拾行李，开车送你去机场。”迪恩·汤普森权威地说。
"Steve, we're going to have you sleep in the infirmary tonight, under observation. Then the campus police will help you pack and drive you to the airport tomorrow morning," Dean Thompson said authoritatively.
“你知道，史蒂夫，”我尽我所能地对他说道，“今晚你给很多人带来了很多悲伤。”
"You know, Steve," I said to him as tutorly as I could muster, "you've caused a lot of grief for a lot of people tonight."
“这是我最后一次扳平比分的机会。”
"This was my last chance to even up the score."
周日上午
Sunday Morning
迪恩·汤普森十点钟打来电话。“他在飞机上。警察把他和他的东西带到机场没有任何问题。他们一直把他带到座位上，看着飞机门关闭，所以我们确信他正在路上。”
Dean Thompson called at ten. "He's on the plane. The CPs had no problem taking him and his things to the airport. They took him all the way to his seat and watched the door of the plane close, so we're sure he's on his way."
MIT的另一款产品已经发货。但你有收据吗？
Another product of MIT has been shipped. But do you have a receipt?
章节
C H A P T E R
14
14
永动机
Perpetual Motion
1983 年 1 月 2 日
January 2, 1983
“是的，这就是他，”我说。
"Yes, this is he," I said.
“我们希望你作为麻省理工学院的参赛者之一前往加州参加 1 月 20 日的永动机竞赛，”制片人说道。“我们收到了 30 份申请这三个地点的申请，Chedd Angier Productions 的每个人都同意在未亲眼见过的情况下接受您。您的申请真是大胆。”
"We'd like you to go to California as one of MIT's contestants in the perpetual motion machine contest on January 20," the producer said. "We received thirty applications for the three spots, and everyone here at Chedd Angier Productions agreed to accept you sight unseen. Your application had real chutzpah."
耶皮。免费加州之旅。全国范围内的电视曝光是任何一个苦苦挣扎的年轻喜剧演员都会拼命追求的。如果我打得好，去参加有氧运动课，在接下来的两周里进行一些训练，并参加魅力课程，也许一些纽约或好莱坞的制片人会看到这个节目并说，这孩子太棒了。让我们给他报名一部乏味的情景喜剧吧。”每集 30K 的收入肯定比工程师每年 3 万美元的收入要高。
Yippee. A free trip to California. Nationwide television exposure that any struggling young comic would kill for. If I play my cards right, go to aerobics class, pump some iron for the next two weeks, and take charisma lessons, maybe some New York or Hollywood producer will see the show and say, This kid's great. Let's sign him up for a vapid sitcom." Thirty K per episode sure beats an engineer's $30K per year.
“非常感谢。其他类似的应用程序是什么让我的应用程序如此脱颖而出？”
"Thanks a lot. What were the other applications like that made mine stand out so much?"
“其他大多数人提交了六页的永动机公证论文，附有图表和教授的推荐信。过了一段时间，它们看起来都一样。但你的脱颖而出。我们还根据这个基础选择了另外两篇。 ”
"Most of the others submitted six-page notarized essays on perpetual motion, with figures and drawings, and reference letters from professors. They all looked the same after a while. But yours stood out. We've also selected two others on the basis of our interviews. One of them came to the interview wearing a tuxedo and a red carnation. He's quite an accomplished trombone player."
“这听起来像是朋友的朋友，我每隔一两个月就在无限走廊里聊天的一个人。是丹·瓦格纳吗？”
"That sounds like a friend of a friend, a guy I chat with in the infinite corridor every month or two. Is it Dan Wagner?"
“是的，就是他。另一位是机械工程专业的大四学生蒂姆·纽伯格。他非常聪明。我选择他是因为他说他最有趣的智力经历就是阅读塔木德。我想你们三个将成为一支优秀的团队。”
"Yes, that's him. And the other one is a senior in Mechanical Engineering, Tim Neuberger. He's extremely bright. I picked him because he said the most interesting intellectual experience he'd had was reading the Talmud. I think the three of you will make a good team."
1 月 3 日
January 3
文献综述。永动机。我参考了 Gyftopoulos 课堂上的笔记本。问题集 3，问题 1：“证明第一类永动机 (IPMM1)-4 的不可能性，满分 10 分。” 问题 2：“证明第二类永动机 (IPMM2)-2 的不可能性，满分 10 分。” 这些都没有帮助。我记得我曾问过吉夫托普洛斯教授，放在一杯水旁边的玩具鸟是否符合永动机的条件。当它的喙进入水中时，水进入喙上的灯芯，通过毛细管作用将其向下拉。然后它来回摇晃，似乎没有能量输入。
Literature review. Perpetual Motion. I referred to my notebook from Gyftopoulos's class. Problem set 3, Problem 1: "Prove the Impossibility of a Perpetual Motion Machine of the First Kind (IPMM1)-4 out of 10 points." Problem 2: "Prove the Impossibility of a Perpetual Motion Machine of the Second Kind (IPMM2)-2 out of 10 points." These will be no help. I remembered asking Professor Gyftopoulos whether the toy bird that you put next to a glass of water would qualify as a perpetual motion machine. When its beak goes into the water it's pulled down by the capillary action of the water going into the wick on the beak. Then it rocks back and forth, with seemingly no energy input.
是的，吉夫托普洛斯教授说过，你说得对，这不是永动机，因为你有永动机，但没有将能量转移到系统之外。
Yes, Professor Gyftopoulos had said, you are right in saying that is not a perpetual motion machine, because you have perpetual motion but no transfer of energy out of the system.
我们还没有见过永动机，这种机器发出的能量比输入的能量多。因为我们还没有见过 PMM，所以我们会说 PMM 不可能存在，因为能量，无论是什么，都是守恒的。由于能量守恒，因此不可能有第一类永动机。
We haven't seen a perpetual motion machine, something that puts out more energy than goes into it. Since we haven't seen a PMM, we'll say that one can't exist, because energy, whatever that is, is conserved. Since energy is conserved, there can be no perpetual motion machines of the first kind.
永动机不断地提供动力，无需能量输入。第一种 PMM“旨在从下落或转动的物体传递比将设备恢复到原始状态所需的更多的能量”。一个例子是连接在一起的闭环水车和泵。
A perpetual motion machine delivers power perpetually, with no energy input. A PMM of the first kind "purports to deliver more energy from a falling or turning body than is required to restore the device to its original state." An example of this is a closedloop waterwheel and pump joined together.
如果水车产生的功率大于泵将水推回水车顶部所需的功率，则水车可以在没有任何燃料的情况下永久发电。但尽管进行了多次尝试，仍然没有人设计出一种能够实现这一目标的系统。如果他们有的话，波斯湾只不过是一个令人愉快的度假胜地。
If the waterwheel generated more power than the pump needed to push the water back up to the top of the waterwheel, the waterwheel could generate power perpetually without any fuel. But despite many attempts, no one has devised a system that achieves that. If they had, the Persian Gulf would be no more than a pleasant vacation spot.
大英百科全书上的一篇文章描述了永动机的各种尝试：伍斯特第二侯爵爱德华·萨默塞特（1601-1667 年）在 1638 年或 1639 年左右制造了一台机器，并为查理一世和他的宫廷操作了该装置。在同一世纪，荷兰物理学家 WJ Gravesand 检查了法国人 Offyreus 的机器，并对它的结构印象深刻，尽管他不被允许检查机器的内部。格雷夫桑在给牛顿的一封冗长而详细的信中描述了该装置。
An article in Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the various attempts at perpetual motion: Edward Somerset, second marquis of Worcester (1601-1667), produced a machine around 1638 or 1639 and operated the device for Charles I and his court. In the same century, the Dutch physicist W. J. Gravesand inspected the machine of the Frenchman Offyreus and was impressed by its construction, although he was not allowed to inspect the interior of the machine. Gravesand wrote about the device in a lengthy and detailed letter to Newton.
与我们今天的高科技设备相比，百科全书中的简单图纸看起来很原始，但它们看起来和许多两七十台设计竞赛机器一样复杂，包括我自己的。
The simple drawings in the encyclopaedia looked primitive compared to our high-technology devices today, but they looked just as sophisticated as many of the two-seventy design contest machines, including my own.
1 月 4 日
January 4
我请求 Chet Yeung 允许我请假去参加比赛，再加上一周的假期时间去湾区骑自行车，为镜头减掉一些体重。
I asked Chet Yeung for permission to take the time off to go to the contest, plus a week of vacation time to bicycle in the Bay Area, to lose some weight for the cameras.
他突然问道：“他们为什么选你？”
He asked abruptly, "Why'd they pick you?"
“哎呀，切特，我不知道；也许他们希望团队中有人让其他两个人看起来很聪明。”
"Gee, Chet, I don't know; maybe they wanted somebody on the team to make the other two guys look smart."
“是的，好吧，我想你可以休息一下。不过，我应该继续这样做。如果他们真的想要一个团队来解决这个问题，他们就会有像我这样的人，”切特说。
"Yeah, well, I guess you can have the time off. I should go along on that, though. If they really wanted to have a team that would solve it, they'd have someone like me along," Chet said.
我想知道他是否冒充研究生并在团队选拔时将自己的名字写在帽子上。我回答说：“他们只想要学生来做这件事。好吧，我知道你看起来很年轻，适合当学生，但你会有不公平的优势。你很有天赋。”
I wondered whether he'd posed as a graduate student and put his name in the hat for the team selection. I answered, "They only want students on this thing. Okay, I know you look young enough to be a student, but you'd have an unfair advantage. You're gifted."
“是的，好吧，只是尽量不要因为你在电视上说的话让研究所难堪，”切特说。“让其他人来说话吧。”
"Yeah, well, just try not to embarrass the institute by what you say on TV," Chet said. "Let the other guys do most of the talking."
谢谢你，切特，投下信任票。
Thank you, Chet, for that vote of confidence.
“哦，是的，但在你走之前，我希望你对我组装的计算机模型进行一些运行，以确保 RCM 模拟真实柴油发动机的冲程。我认为在我们之前研究机器的人可能会弄乱了不压井室的组装，”切特说。
"Oh yeah, but before you go I want you to do some runs of a computer model I've put together to make sure the RCM simulates the stroke of a real diesel engine. I think the guys who worked on the machine before us may have messed up the assembly of the snubbing chamber," Chet said.
我离开他的办公室，去找吉夫托普洛斯教授交谈，向他索要永动机的参考资料。
I left his office and went to talk to Professor Gyftopoulos, to ask him for reference materials on perpetual motion machines.
“这非常有趣。我想知道他们为什么选择你，”他说。
"That's very interesting. I wonder why they picked you," he said.
“他们喜欢我的申请。”
"They liked my application."
“好吧，寻找机器中可能发生不可逆性的地方。机器内部肯定会有摩擦，并且机器内部肯定会有能量供应。尽你所能找到这些地方。”
"Well, look for places where irreversibility may occur in the machine. There will certainly be friction, and there will certainly be an energy supply within the machine. Do what you can to locate these."
格林的态度更加积极一些。“恭喜，”他说。“被选为麻省理工学院的代表，真是一种荣幸。”
Greene was a little more positive. "Congratulations," he said. "That's quite an honor, being picked as a representative from MIT. "
我很高兴有人这么认为。
I'm glad somebody thinks so.
“不过，你会面临来自伯克利的激烈竞争。但这是一个可爱的地区。我希望你能给自己时间去欣赏一些景点。”
"You'll have some tough competition from Berkeley, though. But it's a lovely area. I hope you're giving yourself time to take in a few of the sights."
“是的，我会在那里骑一周左右。对于如何思考这个问题，你有什么建议吗？”
"Yes, I'll cycle there for about a week. Do you have any suggestions as to how to think about the problem?"
“是的，好吧，寻找能量质量下降的地方。多年来对永动机的大多数尝试都包括从过程中移除能量的部分以及将能量重新投入到过程中的其他部分。问题是，在现实生活中，只要有能量流动，熵就会增加。你可以通过骑自行车的例子记住这一点。”
"Yes, well, look for where there is degradation in the quality of the energy. Most of the attempts at perpetual motion machines over the ages have included sections where energy is removed from the process and other sections where it's put back into the process. The problem is that wherever you have energy flow, in real life you have entropy increase. You remember that with your cycling example."
“谢谢你的帮助，先生，”我说。“演出开始时我会通知你。”
"Thanks for your help, sir," I said. "I'll let you know when the show is on."
1月6日
January 6
更多盐矿。Chet 向我展示了他的 RCM 活塞运动模型，并在实验室的数字（Ken Olsen，'50）VAX 计算机上复制了该程序。切特在一张绿白相间的电脑纸上为我重新绘制了机器。
More salt mines. Chet showed me his model for the motion of the piston of the RCM and made a copy of the program on the lab's Digital (Ken Olsen, '50) VAX computer. Chet redrew the machine for me on a piece of green and white computer paper.
“所以你看，对轴的运动进行建模的想法是编写运动轴的牛顿第二定律；在其运动的每一点，轴上的力的总和将等于轴组件的质量乘以它的质量。那一刻的加速度，”他说。“我们从油箱获得驱动气压，然后我们获得气缸中气体的压力，推动燃烧室的活塞，然后我们得到后活塞的拖动并减慢整个过程，具体取决于如何那里有很大的空间。”
"So you see, the idea in modeling the motion of the shaft is to write Newton's second law for the moving shaft; at every point in its motion, the sum of the forces on the shaft will equal the mass of the shaft assembly times its acceleration at that moment," he said. "We got the driving air pressure from the tank, and then we got the pressure of the gas in the cylinder pushing back on the combustion chamber's piston, and then we got the back piston dragging along and slowing the whole thing down, depending on how much space there is."
我记得格林的气球问题，我是如何让气球朝一个方向膨胀的。
I remembered Greene's balloon problem, how I'd made the balloon expand in just one direction.
然后我又看了一遍RCM图，并将其翻译成模型的语言。
Then I looked at the RCM diagram again and translated it into the language of the model.
切特继续说道，“所以我希望你把机器从后面拆开，确定可用的环几何形状和带压作业活塞直径。然后我希望你改变计算机中环的顺序，直到机器向前运动。该轴与真实发动机中的轴运动相匹配。”
Chet continued, "So what I want you to do is take the machine apart in the back and determine the ring geometries available and the snubbing piston diameter. Then I want you to change the order of the rings in the computer until the forward motion of the shaft matches the motion of the shaft in a real engine."
我想知道压缩曲线的发生方式为何或是否会产生很大差异，或者切特的观点是否是，这是我们可以控制的东西，使实验更好地匹配现实生活，因此更有用，当我们在底特律发表论文时，问题更少，所以我们必须这样做。可以办到; 因此，我们这样做。但这里还有另一个教训值得吸取。
I wondered why or whether it made much difference how the compression profile took place or whether Chet's point was, This is something we can control to make the experiment match real life better and therefore more useful, less questionable when we present a paper in Detroit, so we have to do it. It can be done; therefore, we do it. But there was another lesson to be learned here.
我的任务是拆开机器，获取无心盘的尺寸，将尺寸输入计算机，并调整无心盘的顺序，直到活塞按要求穿过它们，所有这些都在计算机上进行。另一种选择是反复试验，即将机器拆开并再次组装起来并进行测试，直到获得相同的结果。
My task was to take the machine apart, take the dimensions of the centerless disks, input the dimensions in the computer, and play with the order of the centerless disks until the piston moved through them as required, all on the computer. The alternative was trial and error-i.e., take the machine apart and put it together again and test it until we achieved the same result.
切特已经设置了程序，所以我只需输入环直径列表，然后看看会发生什么。我在一小时内将 RCM 拆开并重新组装了十次，只需更改计算机输入语句中环直径的顺序即可。在现实世界中，工程师一直在做这种事情，因为付钱给工程师建立计算机模型并对其进行破解比付钱给机械师破解金属块要便宜得多。
Chet had set up the program so I only had to input a list of the ring diameters and see what happened. I took the RCM apart and put it back together ten times in an hour, just by changing the order of the ring diameters in the computer's input statement. In the real world, engineers do this kind of thing all the time because it is much cheaper to pay an engineer to set up a computer model and hack away at it than to pay a machinist to hack away at blocks of metal.
那个星期五我又花了几个小时，但没有取得任何进展。周一早上，切特说：“别担心这个问题；我周末就完成了。”
I hacked for a few more hours that Friday but I made no progress. On Monday morning Chet said, "Don't worry about that problem; I finished it over the weekend."
“为什么，切特？” 我问。“我以为那是我的工作。你让我开始，为什么不让我完成呢？”
"Why, Chet?" I asked. "I thought that was my job. You let me start it; why didn't you let me finish it?"
“我不想让你在这上面浪费更多的时间。我们必须在三月份的联盟会议之前把机器重新组装起来并进行一些点火。在你休息一周和下学期即将到来的情况下，我们必须取得很大的进展一月份，”他回答道。
"I didn't want you to waste any more time on it. We gotta put the machine back together and do some firings before the consortium meeting in March. What with your week off and the next semester coming up we gotta make a lotta progress in January," he answered.
这就是切特的风格。微观管理者。切特在让我当学生的问题上陷入了进退两难的境地。一方面，我做这个实验的目的是为了接受工程师的培训。另一方面，也许更重要的是，我从事实验的目的是获得结果、发表论文、晋升切特为正教授，并保留赞助商的收入来源。
This was Chet's style. The micromanager. Chet was stuck between a rock and a hard place in having me as a student. On the one hand, the point of my working on the experiment was for me to be trained as an engineer. On the other, perhaps more significant, hand, the point of my working on the experiment was to obtain results, publish papers, promote Chet to full professorship, and retain the sponsors' income stream.
因此，当我以笨拙的方式做事花了太长时间，因为我以前没有做过这些事情，而且我的思维处理不像切特那样精简和刻薄时，他会介入并帮助我。或者有时，比如周末，他会亲自参与并完成任务。
So when in my lumbering way I took too long to do things because I hadn't done them before and my thought processing wasn't as lean and mean as Chet's, he'd step in and help me. Or sometimes, like over the weekend, he'd jump in and do the task himself.
那天下午，尼克和我根据切特的规格重新组装了环组件。我的感觉一定是尼克一直以来的感觉，执行别人的设计，不知道为什么会这样，报纸上没有提到，但知道这仍然比在装配线上工作要好。
That afternoon, Nick and I reassembled the ring assembly according to Chet's specifications. I felt the way Nick must have always felt, carrying out someone else's design, not knowing why it was that way, not being mentioned in the paper but knowing it was still better than working on an assembly line.
尼克将链条放下到位，我将二十个螺栓穿过孔并插入机器的螺纹孔中。我对他说：不知道有没有人喜欢这种工作。
Nick lowered the chain fall into place and I put the twenty bolts through the holes and into the threaded holes in the machine. I said to him, "I wonder whether anyone likes this kind of work."
“船长，这是什么意思？”
"Whadaya mean by that, Cap'n?"
“怎么样，你喜欢这样的工作吗？”
"Well, do you like this kind of work?"
“当然不是。我必须这样做。这是谋生的。”尼克回答道。
"Of course not. I gotta do it. It's a living," Nick answered.
“这就是我的意思。我想知道共产党人是否喜欢这种工作。”
"That's what I mean. I wonder whether communists like this kind of work."
“别这样说话，船长。共产党人很坏；他们不相信上帝。”
"Don't talk that way, Cap'n. Communists are bad; they don't believe in God."
1 月 14 日
January 14
在飞往旧金山国际机场的夜间航班上，坐在我旁边的那个人是一位天体物理学家。他过着童话般的生活：一半时间在哈佛做研究和教学；另一半时间他在劳伦斯利弗莫尔实验室从事激光诱导核聚变研究。
The guy in the seat next to me on the night flight to San Francisco International was an astrophysicist. He had a storybook life: he spent half his time doing research and teaching at Harvard; the other half he spent working on laser-induced fusion at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
“看看那些星星，”他说。“看看它们。从这里你几乎可以触摸到它们，它们看起来很近。”
"Look at those stars," he said. "Just look at them. You could almost touch them from up here, they look so close."
我和他交换了位置，但由于机舱灯光的刺眼，我什么也看不到。
I switched places with him and couldn't see much of anything, what with the glare from the cabin lights.
“你知道，”他说，“我们现在正在做的事情确实很奇怪。我们在一根铝管内，在距离地面六英里的空中飞行。这真是一件奇怪的事情。我想知道未来会怎样几代人都会思考这个问题。”
"You know," he said, "it's really a strange thing we're doing right now. We're inside an aluminum tube, traveling in the air, six miles above the ground. It's such an odd thing. I wonder what future generations will think about it."
1月18日
January 18
我骑自行车从伯克利到利弗莫尔去见我来自比利时的朋友，我在麻省理工学院工作期间，他已经在美国风能公司工作了一年半。
I bicycled from Berkeley to Livermore to meet my friend from Belgium who'd been working for U.S. Windpower for the year and a half that I'd been at MIT.
“它们工作得很好的原因是，”他说，“一年中大约有八个月的时间里，风稳定地吹过这里的山口。不幸的是，一月不是其中之一，所以它们都不会为你转动。 ”
"What makes them work well," he said, "is that the wind blows steadily through the pass here for about eight months of the year. Unfortunately, January isn't one of the months, so none of them is turning for you."
“为什么风只向一个方向吹？” 我问他（过去式。
"Why does the wind blow one way only?" I asked him.
“萨克拉门托山谷就像一个巨大的太阳能电池板。白天，它变热，空气上升。随着热空气上升，它必须被来自某个地方的空气取代。某个地方的空气是来自海洋的冷空气……它从这里的山口蜿蜒而过。”
"The Sacramento Valley is like a giant solar panel. During the day, it heats up, and the air rises. As the hot air rises, it has to be replaced by air from somewhere. The air from somewhere is cool air from the ocean. It funnels its way through the pass here."
我想起了格林的气球问题。海洋就像高压罐。山谷就是气球；阿尔塔米拉山口是储罐和气球之间的管道。
I remembered Greene's balloon problem. The ocean was like the higher-pressure tank. The valley was the balloon; the Alta Mira Pass was the pipe between the tank and the balloon.
1月20日
January 20
比赛日。丹、蒂姆和我收到了当天的教学大纲。丹穿着他的燕尾服和红色康乃馨，蒂姆穿着他平常的格子衬衫和稍短（即高水位）的灯芯绒。我穿着辛迪借给我的 MITAA（麻省理工学院体育协会）运动衫、蓝色牛仔裤和唐的实验室夹克。据《环球报》的一篇文章称，运动衫的红色在摄像机上显示得很好。
Contest day. Dan and Tim and I received our syllabus for the day. Dan wore his tuxedo and red carnation, Tim wore his normal plaid shirt and slightly short (i.e., high-water) corduroys. I wore the MITAA (MIT Athletic Association) sweatshirt that Cindy lent me, blue jeans, and Don's lab jacket. The red of the sweatshirt would show up well on the video camera, according to an article in The Globe.
伯克利的团队有一名麻省理工学院的物理学本科生，他正在攻读博士学位。天体物理学，再加上两名伯克利本科生计算机运动员。从他开口的那一刻起，很明显，伯克利的麻省理工学院的家伙会给我们带来最大的问题。
Berkeley's team had one MIT physics undergrad, who was doing his Ph.D. in astrophysics, plus two Berkeley undergrad computer jocks. From the moment he opened his mouth, it was evident that it was Berkeley's MIT guy who would pose the biggest problem for us.
比赛首先由诺贝尔化学奖获得者格伦·西博格博士进行介绍和掷硬币，他因在分离和识别比铀重的元素（例如钚）方面所做的工作而闻名。然后，该机器的英国发明者、著名的自我推销者戴维·琼斯博士将简要介绍该机器。我们有机会向他提问，然后我们会闯入各自的酒店房间进行讨论。那时，我们可以请求任何测试设备，并且可以对机器进行两次私人访问。一天结束时，我们将展示我们的结果，然后由琼斯博士决定获胜者。
The contest would consist of first an introduction and toss of a coin by Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Nobel chemistry laureate, who is best known for his work on isolating and identifying elements that are heavier than uranium (plutonium, for example). Then Dr. David Jones, the machine's British inventor and acclaimed selfpromoter, would present the machine briefly. We would have a chance to ask him questions, and then we would break into our respective hotel rooms for discussions. At that point, we could request any test equipment and would have private access to the machine twice. At the end of the day we would present our results, and Dr. Jones would decide the winner.
在摄像机开始转动之前，我们坐在机器一动不动的房间里。琼斯博士用力推了它一下，看起来像是全速的。大约半分钟就停了。“嗯。对不起，女士们先生们，但我想我需要花几分钟时间单独操作这台机器。”
Before the camera started rolling, we sat in the room with the motionless machine. Dr. Jones gave it a good hard push, at what looked like its full speed. It stopped in about half a minute. "Umm. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but I think I'll need a few minutes alone with the machine."
除了琼斯博士之外，所有人都离开了房间。二十分钟后我们又回去了。这台机器是一个安装在矩形钢架上的旋转自行车车轮。框架顶部有两个香烟盒大小的盒子，里面装着看起来像是潜在太阳能电池的东西，框架底部有一个更大的盒子，顶部有两个 3 英寸的金属盘。在轮毂的两侧，一根杆向下延伸到一个单独的圆盘，该圆盘与下盒子上的圆盘相对地上下移动。铜管也对准轮辋，设置的角度可能会吹动车轮。
Everyone left the room except Dr. Jones. Twenty minutes later we went back in. The machine was a spinning bicycle wheel mounted in a rectangular steel frame. At the top of the frame were two cigarette-box-size boxes with what looked like potential solar cells, and at the bottom of the frame was a larger box with two 3-inch metal disks on top. On either side of the wheel's hub, a rod extended down to a separate disk that moved up and down opposite the disk on the lower box. Copper tubes also aimed at the rim, set at such an angle that perhaps they could be blowing the wheel around.
在投掷之前，音响师说：“我在机器附近的麦克风上发现了一些静电。” 这是一个暗示。
Before the toss, the sound guy said, "I'm getting some static on the mike near the machine." This was a hint.
麻省理工学院队赢得了抛掷，所以我们问了第一个问题。蒂姆问，或者更确切地说告诉琼斯博士，“如果我进入外太空，从太空舱中扔出一块岩石，它或多或少会永远保持其初始速度。但这不是永动机，因为岩石不会在其自身运动之外提供动力。你的机器不会在其自身运动之外提供动力，因此在第一类和第二类永动机的热力学定义中，你的设备会发生故障。”
Team MIT won the toss, so we asked the first question. Tim asked, or rather told, Dr. Jones, "If I go into outer space, and I throw a rock from a space capsule, it will keep going at its initial speed more or less forever. But that's not a perpetual motion machine, because the rock doesn't deliver power outside itself. Your machine doesn't deliver power outside its own motion, so in the thermodynamic definition of perpetual motion machines of the first and second kind, your device fails."
琼斯博士大吃一惊。西博格博士轻轻地上下点头。摄像机记录下了这一切。
Dr. Jones was taken aback. Dr. Seaborg nodded his head up and down slightly. The camera caught it all.
琼斯博士回答说：“事实仍然是，这台机器不断地移动。我挑战你来解释为什么。”
Dr. Jones answered, "The fact remains that this machine moves continually. I challenge you to define why."
“它多少钱？” 我问。如果我们对材料成本有上限，我们就可以消除推进方法，例如下部盒子中的微核反应堆或房间其他地方的发射器的微波接收器。
"How much did it cost?" I asked. If we had an upper bound on the materials cost, we could eliminate propulsive methods such as a micronuclear reactor in the lower box or a microwave receiver from a transmitter elsewhere in the room.
“我花了几百美元的设备和数百小时的劳动和烦恼，”琼斯博士的回答引起了演播室观众的笑声。
"A few hundred dollars in equipment and hundreds of hours of labor and aggravation on my part," Dr. Jones answered to laughter from the studio audience.
伯克利团队的麻省理工学院物理学家问道：“你连续运行它多久了？”
The MIT physics guy from Berkeley's team asked, "How long have you run it continually?"
“过去几个月，它在许多博物馆展出，展出时间长达三周，”他回答道。
"It's been on display in a number of museums over the past several months, for periods as long as three weeks," he answered.
我的自行车眼派上了用场。“车轮失灵是有原因的吗？” 我问。
My bicycling eye came in handy. "Is the wheel out of true for a reason?" I asked.
“不。这只是运输的压力，”琼斯博士说。
"No. It's just the stress of shipping," Dr. Jones said.
一位非麻省理工学院伯克利分校的人问道：“整个东西有多重？” 我想，这是多么愚蠢的问题啊。
One of the non-MIT Berkeley guys asked, "How much does the whole thing weigh?" What a stupid question, I thought.
“大约100磅。”
"About 100 pounds."
我们分手回各自的酒店房间。
We broke for our respective hotel rooms.
蒂姆开始了我们的讨论。“我认为他对我向他提出的第一个问题有点生气。如果我们要赢得这场比赛，我们就必须想出一个真正正确的解释。来自音响师的麦克风干扰是不过，黄金提示。其中一些盒子中一定存在电磁场相互作用。我们要一台晶体管收音机。当我还是个孩子的时候，我常常拿着我的晶体管收音机，在频道之间调谐，调高音量，然后把“它就在我父亲的立体声音响、冰箱背面、我母亲的吹风机旁边。它让我母亲发疯，但我可以通过收音机发出的噪音追踪空气中发生的事情。”
Tim started our discussion. "I think he was kind of ticked off at my first question to him. We're going to have to come up with an explanation that's really right if we're going to win this thing. That microphone interference from the sound guy was a golden hint, though. There must be some electromagnetic field interaction in some of those boxes. Let's ask for a transistor radio. When I was a kid I used to take my transistor radio, tune it between channels, turn up the volume, and put it next to things like my father's stereo, the back of the refrigerator, my mother's hair dryer. It drove my mother crazy, but I could sort of track what was happening in the air by the noise the radio made."
“好吧，”丹说。“我会把它写成我们想要的测试设备之一。那么管子呢？”
"OK," Dan said. "I'll write that as one of the items of test equipment we want. What about the tubes?"
“它们可能会吹向轮辋并提供足够的力来克服车轮轴承的摩擦，”我说。“我在比利时的一个朋友抽烟很多，我们用他的香烟来看看空气流动的情况，所以也许我们应该把香烟和火柴也列入清单。”
"They could be blowing on the rim and providing enough force to overcome the friction in the wheel's bearings," I said. "A friend of mine in Belgium smoked a lot and we used his cigarettes to see what air flow was doing, so maybe we should put cigarettes and matches down on the list, too."
“检查一下，”丹说。“我们首先对车轮进行功率分析。我们知道，在琼斯让机器连续工作之前，它需要大约半分钟的时间才能停止。这意味着当动力没有从任何地方转移到车轮的能量大约在30秒内就会耗散掉，我们可以计算出车轮运动时飞轮效应所储存的能量，除以30秒，就可以得出车轮运动所需功率的数量级。克服空气阻力和轴承的摩擦力。”
"Check," Dan said. "Let's first do a power analysis on the wheel. We know that before Jones made the machine work continuously, it took about half a minute for it to come to a stop. That means that when the power isn't being tranferred from wherever to the wheel, the energy of the wheel will be dissipated in about 30 seconds. We can calculate the energy stored in the flywheel effect of the movement of the wheel, and divide by 30 seconds, to find the order of magnitude of the power required to overcome the air resistance and the friction of the bearings."
好主意，我想。丹也曾在麻省理工学院读本科。他计算得很快，所需功率约为0.05瓦。一块或一组相当小的电池就可以让轮子运转几周。
Good idea, I thought. Dan had gone to MIT as an undergrad, too. He ran the calculation quickly, and the power requirement was about 0.05 of a watt. A fairly small battery or set of batteries would keep that wheel going for a few weeks.
“好的；0.05 瓦是克服摩擦力所需的功率。让我们看看从铜管中喷出的空气能否提供那么大的功率。Pepper，你是流体专家。你知道如何计算吗？” 丹问我。
"OK; 0.05 watt is the power required to overcome the friction. Let's figure out whether air jets coming out of the copper tubes could provide that much power. Pepper, you're the fluids whiz. Got any ideas how to calculate that?" Dan asked me.
“嗯，我知道如何计算从管子中流出的功率，以及这与从管子中流出的空气的速度有何关系。我会加入 10% 的效率系数；即十分之一从管道中喷出的空气射流的能量实际上可能会用来转动车轮。这是我们在接下来的一个小时内可以做出的最合理的假设。”
"Well, I know how to calculate how much power is coming out of the tubes, how that relates to the speed of the air coming out of the tubes. And I'll throw in a 10 percent efficiency factor; i.e., one-tenth of the energy of the air jet coming out of the tube might actually go into turning the wheel. That's as reasonable an assumption as any we can make in the next hour."
我写下了带有很多波浪形等号的方程，意思是“大约相等”；我在夏皮罗的课堂上学到了一些东西。“因此，这意味着空气喷射器要使车轮保持运转，空气速度必须约为每秒 3 英尺。如果我们在管子旁边放一根香烟，其余 90% 的空气应该能将烟雾吹得很漂亮。”明显地。”
I wrote down the equations with lots of wavy equals signs, meaning "approximately equal"; I'd learned something in Shapiro's class. "So that means that for the air jet to keep the wheel going, the air speed would have to be about 3 feet per second. If we put a cigarette next to the tube, the other 90 percent of the air should blow the smoke pretty visibly."
“那很好，”丹说。他在某种程度上扮演了我们团队领导者的角色，蒂姆是一个非常聪明的人，而我则很聪明并且有创造力。
"That's good," Dan said. He was sort of taking on the role of our team leader, with Tim the really smart guy, and me sort of smart and sort of creative.
“现在让我们考虑一下这件事可以转向的其他方式，”丹说。
"Now let's consider other ways this thing can turn," Dan said.
“我们需要确定是板驱动轮子还是轮子通过连杆驱动板，”我建议道。“要一个放大镜怎么样，我要仔细看看车轮上的连杆。如果车轮驱动连杆，连接销将位于其套筒顶部的套筒底部。行程，以及行程底部的套筒顶部。如果杆驱动轮，则情况相反。” 我从海伍德教授关于发动机轴承的讨论中学到了这个技巧。“我们需要一个放大镜，再加上聚光灯才能让我看到任何东西。”
"We need to determine whether the plates are driving the wheel or the wheel is driving the plates via the connecting rods," I suggested. "How about asking for a magnifying glass, and I'll get a good close look at the connecting rod at the wheel. If the wheel is driving the rod, the connecting pin will be on the bottom of its sleeve at the top of its stroke, and at the top of its sleeve at the bottom of the stroke. The opposite will be true if the rod is driving the wheel." I'd learned that trick from Professor Heywood's discussion of bearings in engines. "We'll need a magnifying glass, plus a spotlight for me to be able to see anything."
“听起来不错，”蒂姆说。“我们还应该检查这个东西是否从房间里的灯获得电力。框架上盒子上的那些小圆盘可能是太阳能电池。”
"Sounds good," Tim said. "We should also check out whether the thing gets any power from the lights in the room. Those little disks on the boxes on the frame could be solar cells."
我补充道，“是的，如果是这样的话，那么我们可以在给定的时间内计算轮子的转数，然后把房间里的灯关上一分钟左右，然后在同一时间内计算轮子的转数.如果它放慢速度，我们就会知道它是从房间里的灯获取能量的。”
I added, "Yeah, if that's how it works, then we can count revolutions of the wheel in a given time, then shut the lights out in the room for a minute or so, and then count revolutions of the wheel in the same time. If it slows down, we'll know that it's getting its power from the lights in the room."
丹回答道：“好吧，我们来做这个测试吧。不过，这有点明显；我的意思是，我打赌他把那些看起来像太阳能电池板的东西放在那里只是为了愚弄我们。但我们应该检查它的完整性。”
Dan answered, "Right, let's do that test. It's a little on the obvious side, though; I mean, I bet he put those solar-panellooking things on there just to fool us. But we should check it for completeness."
蒂姆说：“那么气流呢？也许它被放置在房间里，这样来自空调的空气在它的一侧上升，在另一侧下降。或者也许是来自房间热量的气流。” “明亮的灯光照射在边缘的盒子上，这样东西就会不断转动。这有点遥远，但是嘿，我们正在这里集思广益，不是吗？一个疯狂的想法可能会带来一个好的想法。”
Tim said, "What about air currents? Maybe it's placed in the room so that the air from the air-conditioning is going up on one side of it and down on the other side of it. Or maybe the air currents from the heat of the bright lights hit the boxes on the rim so that the thing keeps turning. It's sort of a long shot, but hey, we're brainstorming here, aren't we? One wild and crazy idea could lead to a good one."
“我们可以在这东西上面放一个大塑料袋，”我说。“如果他们让我们这样做，并且气流驱动它，那么它就会停止。我的意思是，这符合规则，对吧？我们不会碰它。除此之外，我们拿点冰、一根头发怎么样？吹风机和熨斗。我们可以移动冰块、吹风机和熨斗，这样我们就可以尝试打破稳定的气流，这种气流可能会以有序的方向推动盒子。我们可以引入一些熵系统就是这样。”
"We could put a big plastic bag over the thing," I said. "If they let us do that, and the air currents were driving it, it'd stop then. I mean that's within the rules, right? We wouldn't touch it. Barring that, how about we get some ice, a hair dryer, and an iron. We can move the ice and the hair dryer and the iron around so that we can try to break up the steady air flow that might be pushing the boxes around in such an orderly direction. We can introduce some entropy into the system that way."
“好吧，”丹说。“我会把‘大塑料袋’放在清单上。我们需要一些绳子来固定它，一些透明胶带来密封它，也许还需要一些橡皮筋只是为了更好地测量。还有其他我们应该做的事情吗？”求？”
"Okay," Dan said. "I'll put 'large plastic bag' on the list. We'll need some string to hold it up, and some scotch tape to seal it, and maybe some rubber bands just for good measure. Are there any other things we should ask for?"
“一把大锤子，”蒂姆说，“还有一份意大利辣香肠披萨。”
"A large hammer," Tim said, "and a pepperoni pizza."
“不过，说真的。我们还需要测试其他机制吗？” 丹问道。
"No seriously, though. Are there any other mechanisms we need to test?" Dan asked.
“如果下面的圆盘驱动这个东西，并且它们按照某种电容排斥原理运行——你知道，就像当你在毛衣上摩擦两个气球时它们会相互排斥——那么我们需要以某种方式进行测试。我不过，我不是物理学家，电磁理论就是原因，所以我不知道如何检查它，”我说。
"If the disks below are driving the thing, and they're running on some kind of capacitive repulsion principle-you know, like when you rub two balloons on your sweater and they repel each other-then we need to test that somehow. I'm not a physicist, though, and electromagnetic theory is why, so I don't know how to check that," I said.
蒂姆回答道：“我记得大一物理课《八点二》中的一些内容，内容是关于两个电容板之间的一块金属中的感应电流。如果这些板充当电容器，即它们存储电荷，那么我们放一块薄板两个极板之间的铜，随着电容器极板中的电荷量变化，铜的电荷量也应该变化，我们应该能够测量电流。”
Tim replied, "I remember something in freshman Physics, eight oh two, about an induced current in a piece of metal between two capacitive plates. If the plates are working as a capacitor- i.e., they store electric charges-and we put a sheet of copper in between the two plates, as the amount of charge varies in the plates of the capacitor, the amount of charge of the copper should vary, and we should be able to measure a current."
“很好，”丹回答道。“因此，对于该测试，我们需要一个环形支架来固定铜片，再加上一个电流表来看看我们是否可以测量任何电流。”
"Good," Dan answered. "So for that test we'll need a ring stand to hold the copper sheet, plus a current meter to see whether we can measure any current."
节目的制片人进来了，我们给了他我们的名单；丹从便笺簿上读到了这句话，而摄像机则捕捉到了他的侧面。
The show's producer entered and we gave him our list; Dan read it off the legal pad, while the camera caught him in profile.
“大约半小时内你就可以完成测试，”他说。“也许现在是你吃午饭的好时机。”
"You'll be able to do your testing in about half an hour," he said. "Maybe now would be a good time for you to get some lunch."
“这是个好主意，”我说。“您好，客房服务吗？请给我三个芝士汉堡和薯条。”
"That's a good idea," I said. "Hello, room service? Three cheeseburgers and fries, please."
当我们等待食物时，我们又聊了一些关于机器的事情，但蒂姆建议我们需要一些娱乐。
While we waited for the food, we chatted a little more about the machine, but then Tim suggested we needed some entertainment.
“你们想看《综合医院》还是《我们的日子》？”
"Would you guys rather watch 'General Hospital' or 'Days of Our Lives'?"
投票结果为“综合医院”，投票结果为二比一。
The vote was two to one for "General Hospital."
“汤姆？” 朱莉在屏幕上说道。“我必须告诉你一件事。我要离开你去找史蒂夫，你一起打高尔夫球的工程师。”
"Tom?" Julie said on the screen. "I have to tell you something. I'm leaving you for Steve, the engineer you play golf with."
“什么？” 汤姆回答道。“但我是一名律师。你能在他身上看到什么？”
"What?" Tom answered. "But I'm an attorney at law. What could you possibly see in him?"
“只是他看起来如此......如此......富有成效。”
"It's just that he seems so ... so ... productive."
音乐。消退。
Music. Fade Out.
我们完成了汉堡并进去测试机器。
We finished our burgers and went in to test the machine.
香烟测试，阴性。气流测试，阴性。熄灯测试，阴性。查看表格下方的电源线和电源测试，结果为阴性。用放大镜测试看轴承，没有结论。晶体管无线电测试，阳性！蒂姆扫描机器的方式就像《星际迷航》中麦考伊医生扫描病人一样，每当边缘上的小盒子越过框架上的盒子时，静电就会发出更大的嗡嗡声。
Cigarette test, negative. Air currents test, negative. Lights out test, negative. Look under the table for cord and power supply test, negative. Look at bearing with magnifying glass test, inconclusive. Transistor radio test, positive! Tim scanned the machine the way Doctor McCoy scans sick people on "Star Trek," and the static made a louder buzzing noise every time the little box on the rim went past the box on the frame.
我们没有时间在使用机器的四十五分钟内设置电流表。这必须在我们的第二次会议上讨论。
We didn't have time to set up the current meter in our fortyfive minutes with the machine. That would have to come in our second session.
我们回到房间讨论实验结果。
We went back to our room to discuss the results of our experiments.
“我们知道电力必须在框架上的上部盒子和边缘上的塑料盒之间传输，但是框架上的盒子如何知道何时打开和关闭？” 蒂姆问道。
"We know power must be transferred between the upper boxes on the frame and the plastic boxes on the rim, but how would the boxes on the frame know when to turn on and off?" Tim asked.
“也许机器底部的移动盘和固定盘之间的距离可以通过电力告诉底盒内的传感器车轮在循环中的位置，”我提议道。
"Maybe the distance between the moving disks and the fixed disks on the bottom of the machine electrically tells a sensor inside the bottom box where the wheel is in the cycle," I proposed.
“信息可以通过框架内的电线传输到框架上的上部盒子。该电线可以告诉上部框架盒子车轮在其周期中的位置。然后它可以打开电磁体来拉动轮圈磁铁，然后反转极性以将边缘磁铁推开。”
"The information could be transferred to the upper box on the frame through a wire inside the frame. That wire could tell the upper frame boxes where the wheel is in its cycle. It could then turn on an electromagnet to pull the rim magnet and then reverse polarity to push the rim magnet away."
“这是相当合理的，”蒂姆说，“但如果这些板块正在发挥作用呢？我们仍然需要对此进行测试。”
"That's fairly plausible," Tim said, "but what if the plates are doing the work? We still need to test that."
“我们可以在下次使用机器时做到这一点，”丹说。“不过，我也想知道下面那个盒子里装的是什么。对此你有什么想法吗？”
"We can do that in our next session with the machine," Dan said. "I'd like to know what's inside that lower box, though, too. Any ideas on that?"
“也许我们可以把听诊器放在离它很近的地方而不用碰它，”我说。“这样我也许能听到盒子里是否有任何机械动作。最坏的情况是，这可能会导致我在全国电视上拍出一张漂亮的头像。我可以把它发送给人才经纪公司。”
"Maybe we can put a stethoscope real close to it without touching it," I said. "I might be able to hear whether there's any mechanical action inside the box that way. At worst, it might result in a nice profile shot of me on nationwide TV. I could send it to a talent agency."
蒂姆回答说：“它可能不会告诉你任何事情，但可能值得一试。我们应该瞄准的主要目标是将那块金属放在板之间。任何人都知道如何将其连接起来？”
Tim answered, "It probably won't tell you anything, but it might be worth a try. The main thing we should aim for is to get that piece of metal in between the plates. Anybody got any ideas of how to hook it up?"
“它可能应该与电流表串联，”丹说。“不过，这有点毛茸茸的。自从我上二年级物理实验室以来已经很长时间了。”
"It should probably be in series with the ammeter," Dan said. "That's a little hairy, though. It's been a long time since I took sophomore physics lab."
“是的，如果他们为团队选择一个双 E 或物理学家而不是我们，那确实会有帮助。我的意思是，我们有点被我们领域的狭窄所困住了，”我说。
"Yeah, it would really help if they'd picked a double E or a physics guy for the team instead of one of us. I mean we're kind of trapped by the narrowness of our fields," I said.
丹画了一张如何将电流表连接到铜片上的草图。“我想我们已经准备好第二次拍摄了。现在会是什么？‘躁动的年轻人’？还是‘夜的边缘’？”
Dan drew a sketch of how to hook up the ammeter to the piece of copper. "I think we're ready for our second shot. What'll it be now? 'The Young and the Restless'? or 'The Edge of Night'?"
“我一直在关注《年轻人与不安分》，”蒂姆说。“我们可以看那个吗？”
"I've been following 'The Young and the Restless,' " Tim said. "Can we watch that?"
制片人在广告时段召集了我们。在我们返回房间进行第二轮测试之前，丹说：“等一下。我们在进去的路上必须做一些类似黑客的事情。”
The producer summoned us during a commercial break. Before we returned to the room for the second round of testing, Dan said, "Wait a minute. We've got to do something hacklike on our way in."
“一起吹口哨‘工作时吹口哨’怎么样？” 我建议。
"How about whistling 'Whistle While You Work' in unison?" I suggested.
“我喜欢这样，”蒂姆说。“我们先练习一下，然后再进去吧。”
"I like that," Tim said. "Let's practice first, then walk in."
我们做得很好——当我们从他身边呼啸而过时，摄影师微微一笑。后续测试没有任何结果。我通过听诊器没有听到任何声音，下板之间的环架上铜片上的电流表也没有告诉我们任何信息。丹站在机器旁边，看起来就像拉斯维加斯的轮盘赌庄家。不过，房间角落里的一堆测试设备确实告诉了我们一些事情。
We did pretty well-the cameraman smirked slightly as we whistled past him. Nothing came of the follow-up tests. I heard nothing through the stethoscope, and the ammeter on the copper sheet on the ring stand between the lower plates told us nothing either. Dan looked like a roulette dealer in Las Vegas as he stood next to the machine. The pile of test equipment in the comer of the room did tell us something, though.
示波器，许多看起来像电子设备的大盒子。神圣的主场优势，蝙蝠侠。伯克利大学的傻瓜们可能让整个物理和电气工程系的技术供应人员全天都处于高度戒备状态。由于这是因奥皮（J.罗伯特·奥本海默，原子弹开发者）而闻名的物理系，他们对复杂的非侵入式诊断工具的访问比我们多得多。也许我们应该早点来伯克利并与技术人员达成一些协议。
Oscilloscopes, many big electronicky-looking boxes. Holy home court advantage, Batman. The Berkeley dweebs probably had the whole physics and electrical engineering department technical supply staff on full alert for the day. And since this was the physics department made famous by Oppie (J. Robert Oppenheimer, A-bomb developer), their access to sophisticated nonintrusive diagnostic tools was far greater than ours. Maybe we should have come to Berkeley earlier and cut some deals with technicians.
回到我们的房间，伯克利在我们的门上贴了一张快乐的笑脸。我们同意，多么优雅啊。我们把一张皱着眉头的脸贴在他们的门上。
Back at our room Berkeley had taped a happy smiley face to our door. How declasse, we agreed. We taped a frowny face to their door.
“那么我们要说什么，伙计们，谁来说呢？” 丹问道。
"So what are we going to say, guys, and who's going to say it?" Dan asked.
“蒂姆是个聪明人。他应该这么做，”我说。“丹，你和我都穿红色衣服，所以我们获得了十五秒的成名。”
"Tim's the smart one. He should do it," I said. "Dan, you and I've both worn red so we've gotten our fifteen seconds of fame."
“蒂姆，你愿意吗？” 丹问道。
"Are you willing, Tim?" Dan asked.
“当然，为什么不呢？让我们想想我们要说什么，”蒂姆实事求是地说。他有教授的潜质。
"Sure, why not. Let's figure out what we're going to say," Tim said matter-of-factly. He had professor potential.
我说：“让我们把我们确定知道的事情列出来。当我在论文工作中遇到机械问题时，我实验室的技术人员尼克总是告诉我要做的事情。”
I said, "Let's make a list of what we know for sure. That's what Nick the technician in my lab has always told me to do when I'm stuck on a mechanical problem in my thesis work."
“好吧，”蒂姆说。当我们讨论时，丹写下了这份清单。
"OK," Tim said. Dan wrote the list as we talked through it.
1. 框架上的盒子具有能量传递，经晶体管无线电测试证明。
1. Upper boxes on frames have energy transfer, proved by transistor radio test.
2. 冰/吹风机测试证明，房间内的气流没有任何作用。
2. Air currents in room aren't doing anything, as proved by ice/hairdryer test.
3. 熄灯测试证明，上层盒子上的假光电管没有任何作用。
3. Fake photocells on upper boxes aren't doing anything, as proved by lights-out test.
4. 喷气管只是一个诡计，香烟测试证明了这一点。
4. Air jet tubes are just a ruse, as proved by cigarette test.
5. 所有电源都必须独立于机器中的电池中，如插头测试表所示。
5. All power has to be self-contained in machine in batteries somewhere, as proved by look under table for plug test.
6、经听诊器测试，下箱无较大噪音。
6. No major noise comes out of the lower box, as proved by stethoscope test.
7. 通过铜测试证明，没有大电流传入和传出板。
7. No large current is being conveyed to and from plates, as proved by copper test.
当我们完成清单时，蒂姆说：“所以我们知道能量从边缘上的盒子传递到框架上的盒子。不过，我们仍然困惑于框架上的盒子如何知道如何打开和关闭。”在正确的时间拉动车轮。我的意思是，如果他搞砸了，框架上的盒子可能会在应该推动轮辋上的盒子时拉动轮辋上的盒子，而在应该拉动轮子时推动它，并且事情不会再继续下去了。”
When we finished our list, Tim said, "So we know the energy's going from the boxes on the rim to the boxes on the frame. We're still stuck, though, on how the boxes on the frame know how to turn on and off themselves at the right time to pull the wheel around. I mean, if he messed it up, the box on the frame could pull the box on the rim when it's supposed to push it and push it when it's supposed to pull it, and the thing wouldn't keep going."
“这可能就是今天早上发生的事情，当时它无法启动，”我提出。“我仍然认为它可能与下面的活塞同步。板每转上下移动的次数与轮辋上的塑料盒经过框架上的盒子的次数之间有一个设定的比率。也许盒子里面有一个电路，它从板的运动中获取脉冲，并告诉电磁体何时打开和关闭。机器内部可能有电线以电子方式传送该信息。
"That might be what was happening this morning when it wouldn't start," I offered. "I still think it might be synchronized with the pistons below. There's a set ratio between the number of times the plates go up and down per revolution and the number of times the plastic boxes on the rim go by the boxes on the frame. Maybe there's a circuit inside the box that takes a pulse from the motion of the plates and tells the electromagnet when to turn on and off. There could be wires inside the machine that convey that information electronically."
“对我来说听起来不错，”蒂姆说。
"Sounds good to me," Tim said.
“我也是，”丹说。
"Me, too," Dan said.
制片人敲了敲门。我们三个人回到房间，蒂姆做了解释，而丹和我坐在后台，对镜头显得很热心和警惕。然后我们走出房间，经过伯克利分校的同学们进来。这位麻省理工学院物理学专业的本科生在前面带路，脸上挂着傲慢的笑容。麻省理工学院团队遇到了麻烦。伯克利把那张皱着眉头的脸重新贴在了我们的门上。
The producer knocked on the door. The three of us returned to the room and Tim presented the explanation, while Dan and I looked keen and alert for the camera as we sat in the background. Then we went out of the room and passed the Berkeley guys on their way in. The MIT undergrad physics major led the way, with a cocky, arrogant grin on his face. Team MIT was in trouble. Berkeley had put the frowny face back on our door.
在“比赛游戏”进行到一半时，制片人回来让我们坐下来听大卫·琼斯博士的判断，看看谁对这件事是如何运作的有更好的解释。我的胃里和胸口再次有了那种感觉，那种空虚的感觉，就像你在等待知道你的考试成绩、你的 SAT 分数是多少、哪些大学录取了你时的感觉。
Midway through "The Match Game," the producer came back to have us sit down and listen to Dr. David Jones's judgment on who had the better explanation of how the thing worked. I had that feeling in my stomach and my chest again, that hollow feeling you get when you're waiting to find out how you did on a test, what your SAT scores were, which colleges accepted you.
“两个团队都表明这不是永动机。虽然两个团队都将主要推进装置放在边缘塑料盒中的磁铁和框架上的电磁体中，但伯克利团队更正确地解释了如何机器工作正常，因为他们正确地将整个控制装置与框架上的盒子中包含的脉冲电磁体隔离开来。麻省理工学院的团队错误地将连接到轮子侧面的杆暗示为某种“控制”机构。”
"Both of the teams have shown that this is not a perpetual motion machine. While both teams located the primary means of propulsion in the magnets in the plastic boxes on the rim and the electromagnets on the frame, the Berkeley team more correctly explained how the machine works, because they correctly isolated the entire control to a pulsed electromagnet contained in the box on the frame. The MIT team incorrectly implicated the rods attached to the side of the wheel, as some kind of 'control' mechanism."
琼斯博士从镜框上取下盒子，打开一个放相机的盒子。“正如你所看到的，里面有一个小电池，和一些简单的电子电路，为电磁铁的打开和关闭提供定时。”
Dr. Jones removed the boxes from the frame and opened one for the camera. "As you can see, there is a small battery inside, and some simple electronic circuitry to provide the timing for the electromagnet to turn on and off."
坝。对不起大家。对不起麻省理工学院。如果我们当中只有一个人懂得一些电子产品就好了。我真的应该上一两节课；这是现在的浪潮。
Dam. Sorry guys. Sorry MIT. If only one of us knew some electronics. I really should take a class or two in that; it's the wave of the present.
琼斯博士继续说道。“然而，你注意到，一旦我取下电磁盒，机器仍在转动。你看，有一个单独的推进机制，两个团队在他们的解释中都没有提到。” 他的笑容与来自伯克利的物理学家一样傲慢、自大。演播室的观众对着镜头尽职尽责地大笑。我们尽职尽责地与获胜者、他的同事以及机器的发明者握手。
Dr. Jones continued. "You notice, however, that once I've taken off the electromagnet boxes, the machine is still turning. You see, there is a separate propulsive mechanism that neither team addressed in their explanation." He smirked the same arrogant, cocky smirk that the physics guy from Berkeley smirked. The studio audience laughed dutifully for the camera. We dutifully shook hands with the winner and his colleagues and the inventor of the machine.
之后丹和我坐在酒店泳池边的按摩浴缸里。蒂姆顺便过来，坐在池畔的躺椅上。客房服务送来了茶点——我们仍然在报销。
Afterward Dan and I sat in the Jacuzzi by the pool at the hotel. Tim dropped by and sat in the poolside lounge chair. Room service brought the refreshments-we were still on expense account.
“你知道，我们真的让研究所失望了；我的意思是，我对此感到非常难过，”我说。
"You know, we've really let the institute down; I mean, I feel really bad about it," I said.
“是的，我也是，”丹说。“你能递一下鱼子酱吗？”
"Yeah, me too," Dan said. "Could you pass the caviar?"
“我们很接近，”蒂姆说。“太接近了。佩珀和我最近才接管了控制权，这太糟糕了；如果我们没有这样做，也许我们就不会试图在机器中找到控制器。而且你知道还有什么，当我们试图识别工作时我认为我们在另一种推进方法上走在正确的轨道上。我认为这是某种电容装置，其中电极性变为正极性和负极性，因此在周期的某个时刻它正在拉动“当它把另一块板推离它时，我们发现了这一点；如果我们了解更多关于电力和电气测试的知识，我们就可以证明这一点。”
"We were close," Tim said. "Damn close. It's too bad Pepper and I took controls so recently; if we hadn't, maybe we wouldn't have tried to find a controller in the machine. And you know what else, when we tried to identify the work the plates were doing, I think we were on the right track for the other method of propulsion. I think it was some kind of capacitive device, where the electric polarity went positive and negative, so that at one point in the cycle it was pulling the plate toward it, while it was pushing the other plate away from it. We caught that; if only we knew more about electricity and electrical testing we could have proven it."
“是的，”丹说。“不过，让我感到困惑的是，他们团队中唯一有头脑、能说话的人就是那个天体物理学家。其他人似乎只是顺水推舟。”
"Yeah," Dan said. "The thing that gets me, though, is that the only guy from their team who had any brains, who did any of the talking, was that astrophysics guy. The other guys seemed to be just going along for the ride."
蒂姆补充道，“他在麻省理工学院完成了本科学业。难怪他这么优秀。”
Tim added, "And he did his undergraduate work at MIT. No wonder he was so good."
“是的，”我说。“三名麻省理工学院的工程师与一名麻省理工学院的物理学家。忘记伯克利吧；这不是一场公平的竞争。”
"Yeah," I said. "Three MIT engineers versus one MIT physicist. Forget Berkeley; it wasn't a fair contest."
章节
C H A P T E R
15
15
Hackito Ergo Sum
Hackito Ergo Sum
日程：
Schedule:
83 年春季：2.01 固体力学（希尔）
Spring '83: 2.01 Mechanics of Solids (Hill)
2.94 固体动力学（林肯）
2.94 Dynamics of Solids (Lincoln)
2.996 论文
2.996 Thesis
2月14日
February 14
希尔教授庄严地站在固体力学课前。我后面一排有一张空桌子。“我有一些非常悲伤的消息告诉你。你的一位同学昨天结束了自己的生命。”
Professor Hill solemnly stood before the solid mechanics class. There was an empty desk in the row behind me. "I've got some very sad news for you. One of your classmates took his own life yesterday."
我当时就想哭，但我和班上所有十九、二十岁的孩子们一起忍住了。他为什么这么做？这个地方为何会产生绝望、孤独和无力的感觉，将任何人推向崩溃的边缘？我记得史蒂夫·沃森的经历；他真的很聪明，但他仍然觉得自己一文不值。我记得第一个学期，看门人埃迪告诉我要放松，时不时地玩玩，这样他就不必打电话给校园警察来剪断床单、绳子或皮带，并进行口对口人工呼吸。 。
I wanted to cry right then and there, but I suppressed it along with all the nineteen- and twenty-year-olds in the class. Why did he do it? What is it about this place that breeds the feeling of hopelessness, loneliness, and inadequacy that could push anyone over the edge? I remembered the Steve Watson experience; he was really smart and he still felt worthless. I remembered Eddy the janitor telling me to take it easy that first term, to have fun now and then so he wouldn't have to call the campus police to cut the sheet or the rope or the belt and issue mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
希尔教授是一位善良而温和的人，每当我去他的办公室寻求帮助时，他都会耐心地回答我的问题。他继续着演讲的悲伤前奏。“求你了。如果你不高兴，就别闹到这种程度。来跟我谈谈，或者和你的宿舍导师、或者“夜线”、或者宗教顾问、或者精神科，或者如果你有的话，请告诉朋友。不要忘记你有一个选择。你可以离开研究所。这不是世界上唯一好的工程学校。事实上，如果你去其他没有教授的地方在如此大的研究经费压力下，你可能会接受更好的教育。如果你在这方面需要任何帮助，请与我联系。”
Professor Hill was a kind and gentle man, who patiently an swered my questions whenever I went to his office for help. He continued the sad prelude to the lecture. "Please. If you're unhappy, don't let it go that far. Come and talk to me, or talk to your hall tutor, or to "Nightline," or to a religious counselor, or to the psychiatric department, or to a friend if you have one. And don't forget one option that you have. You can leave the institute. It's not the only good engineering school in the world. In fact, if you go somewhere else where the professors aren't under such pressure to produce research funding you might receive a better education. Please talk to me if you need any help along these lines."
我报名参加了希尔教授的静力学课程和林肯教授的本科生动力学课程，二九四。静力学是梁、桁架、桥梁之类的东西。动力学是指移动的横梁、桁架和桥梁，它们在风中前后摇晃。动力学也是车床、机器人手臂和导弹轨迹。
I enrolled in Professor Hill's class, a.k.a. Statics, and Professor Lincoln's undergraduate Dynamics class, two nine four. Statics is beams and trusses and bridges and things like that. Dynamics is beams and trusses and bridges that move, that rock back and forth in the wind. Dynamics is also lathes and robot arms and missile trajectories.
两七十分后，我知道在与本科生的正面竞争中，可以取得 A 的成绩。我认为这两门课程会让我的成绩单上再多加两个 A。这些课程将是我对博士资格考试力学部分的复习。在麻省理工学院，你必须寻找多弹头导弹的方法，一石多鸟。
After two seventy I knew that A's were attainable in head to head competition with the undergrads. I figured the two courses would add two more A's to my transcript. And the classes would be my review for the mechanics section of the doctoral qualifying exams. At MIT you have to look for ways to MIRV things, to kill multiple birds with one stone.
3月10日
March 10
在牢房里。Chet 和我准备使用新的启动装置在高压下进行 RCM 点火。
In the cell. Chet and I prepared for the RCM firing at high pressure with the new starting mechanism.
“我希望你也安装喷油器，”他说。“我们可能还无法制作电影，但如果我们燃烧燃料，我们将有一些数据向联盟展示。”
"And I want you to mount the fuel injector, too," he said. "We may not be able to make a movie yet, but if we combust fuel we'll have some data to show the consortium."
“但是，切特，如果实验出了问题怎么办？为什么我们不关闭喷油器，我用一块有机玻璃封闭气缸？里面已经有 0 环和所有东西了，”我反驳道。“如果一切顺利，我们可以在注射器就位的情况下进行第二次点火。”
"But, Chet, what if something goes wrong with the experiment? Why don't we leave the fuel injector off and I'll close the cylinder with a piece of Plexiglas? It's got the 0-rings in it already and everything," I countered. "If everything goes well, we can do a second firing with the injector in place."
“我认为这样做是浪费时间，但如果你坚持的话，我们可以这么做。”
"I think it's a waste of time to do that, but if you insist, we can do that."
我的脉搏频率没有像以前那样升高。压力的增加是可以预见的；我知道在多大的压力下，金属会发出自我调整的沉闷声。
My pulse rate didn't rise quite as high as it had on previous firings. The pressure buildup was predictable; I knew at what pressures the clunks of the metal adjusting itself would occur.
繁荣。
BOOOM.
嘶嘶声。成功射击后我释放了油箱的压力。我又开始正常呼吸了。切特和我走到机器前面，海伍德教授打开牢房的门，看看测试进行得如何。
Hisssss. I dumped the pressure from the tank after the successful firing. I breathed regularly again. Chet and I went to the front of the machine, and Professor Heywood opened the door to the cell to see how the test went.
在我的坚持下，我们安装的没有燃油喷射器的窗户被打碎了。活塞由更高的压力、更高的力和更高的动量驱动，遵循的不是切特的计算机模型，而是牛顿和墨菲定律。活塞的预定目的地距离窗户大约一英寸；它的实际目的地是在窗户的中间。如果燃油喷射器就位，它就会被毁坏。
The window we put in at my insistence, without the fuel injector, was shattered. The piston, driven by the higher pressure and the higher force and the higher momentum, had obeyed not Chet's computer model, but Newton's and Murphy's laws. The piston's intended destination was about an inch short of the window; its actual destination was halfway through the window. Had the fuel injector been in place it would have been destroyed.
“我猜你是对的，”切特对我说。
"I guess you were right on that one," Chet said to me.
“这会让我们有点倒退，”海伍德教授说。“我们可以修理设备。我很高兴你们俩都安然无恙。去年，广岛工业学院水口分校的 RCM 爆炸，导致两名研究生丧生。”
"This will set us back a bit," Professor Heywood said. "We can fix the equipment. I'm glad both of you are all right. Mizugachi at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology lost two graduate students last year when their RCM exploded."
“教授，迷路了吗？” 我问。
"Lost, Professor?" I asked.
“半栋大楼都跟着他们走了。”
"Half the building went with them."
感谢您与我分享这一点，教授。
Thank you for sharing that with me, Professor.
1983 年 4 月 4 日
April 4, 1983
十五年前的今天，在孟菲斯，詹姆斯·厄尔·雷 (James Earl Ray) 将牧师马丁·路德·金 (Martin Luther King, Jr.) 定位在他的高威力步枪瞄准镜的十字准线中，并扣动了扳机。十五年前的今天，林肯教授坐在我的办公桌前，和我一样二十五岁。十五年前的今天，他比现在更属于少数派，因为他获得了一个又一个的A，并开始走上终身教职的道路。他有一个梦想。
Fifteen years ago today, in Memphis, James Earl Ray located the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in the cross hairs of the scope of his high-powered rifle and pulled the trigger. Fifteen years ago today, Professor Lincoln sat in my desk and was twenty-five like me. Fifteen years ago today he was more of a minority than he is now, as he received A after A and started on the path to tenure. He had a dream.
林肯教授站在教室前面讲台上的桌子上，略高于地面。他的西装使他成为《花花公子》杂志 1980 年 12 名最佳着装男士之一。他的咨询费为他带来的不是一辆而是两辆白色捷豹 12 缸 XJ6 四门汽车，配有全皮革内饰和 Bose ('5 1) 扬声器。
Professor Lincoln stood at the front of the room on the table on the lecture platform slightly above floor level. His suits qualified him to be one of Playboy magazine's twelve best-dressed men of 1980. His consulting fees netted him not one but two white Jaguar 12-cylinder XJ6 four-doors with full leather interiors and Bose ('5 1) speakers.
他把上一讲的话题讲完了。“因此，当输入到系统的能量频率与您按下系统时系统来回摆动的频率相同时，就会发生共振。看，这有点像当您还是个坐在秋千上的孩子时”。
He finished the topic of the previous lecture. "And so resonance occurs when the frequency of energy input into a system is the same as the frequency that the system would rock back and forth if you gave it one push. See, it's sort of like when you were a child on a swing set."
他画了一套秋千，旁边有一些希腊字母。
He sketched a swing set with some Greek letters next to it.
他继续说道，“现在，当你还是个秋千上的孩子时，你就像一个钟摆。你的母亲或父亲是一个强迫函数。如果他们把你举起来，让你在不推的情况下摆动，你就会每四秒左右来回摆动一次。 。这就是你的固有频率，或者有些人称之为共振频率，每四秒一次。现在，当你还是个孩子的时候，你就知道在秋千上最有趣的部分就是越荡越高。事情发生的方式是这样的妈妈或爸爸每隔四秒左右就会推你一下，他们在正确的时间以正确的速度向你输入正确的能量，让你越走越高。
He continued, "Now you as a child on the swing set were a pendulum. Your mother or father was a forcing function. If they held you up and let you swing without pushing, you would swing back and forth once every four seconds or so. That's your natural frequency, or what some people call your resonant frequency, once per four seconds. Now as a child you knew that the fun part of being on the swing set was to swing higher and higher. And the way that happened was that Mommy or Daddy gave you a push every four seconds or so, and the energy they input into you was in the right direction at the right time at the right speed to make you go higher and higher.
“在工程学中，你的问题通常是避免这些共振频率。例如，如果你是一座桥，风使你身上的气压以共振频率变化，你很快就会摇晃。这种情况已经发生过好几次了在过去的一两个世纪里。另一方面，如果你成为一名乐器设计师，你的任务将是设计总是能产生共鸣的系统。但这就足够了。你们都放下铅笔，好吗？剩下的在讲座中我不会谈论动力学。”
"In engineering, your problem will usually be to avoid these resonant frequencies. For example, if you were a bridge, and the wind made the air pressure on you vary at a resonant frequency, you'd soon shake apart. That's happened several times in the past century or two. On the other hand, if you become a musical instrument designer, your task will be to design systems that always resonate. But that's enough on resonance. Y'all put down your pencils, OK? For the rest of the lecture I'm not going to talk about dynamics."
班上的其他人收起了笔记本和便笺本。林肯呈现出不同的性格。
The rest of the class put away their notebooks and pads. Lincoln assumed a different character.
“你看，啊，我要上大学了。每一天，在啊进来给你们讲课之前，看到你们的白人教员，他们让我失望，在啊出来和你们谈话之前，他们向我介绍了六个小时”全部。”
"Y'see, Ah nevah wint tah college. Everuh day, before Ah come in tuh lecture y'all, the seenyuh white faculty, dey sets me down, and dey briefs me foe six houwuhs befoe ah comes out to talks to y'all."
除了二月份离开希尔教授的班级、研究所和地球的那一位之外，八十名班级里发出了一两声笑声，气氛有些紧张。
There was a chuckle or two, and sort of a tense air in the class of eighty minus the one who left Professor Hill's class and the institute and Earth in February.
“不过，说真的，”他继续说道。“麻省理工学院是一个种族主义、性别歧视的机构。你可能会问自己，‘为什么不应该如此；这个国家的所有其他机构也是如此，这意味着世界上的机构’，但这不是重点。你现在在这里，并且我想给你们举一些例子来说明我想要表达的观点。”
"But seriously, though," he continued. "MIT is a racist, sexist institution. You may ask yourselves, 'Why shouldn't it be; so is every other institution in this country, that means in the world,' but that's not the point. You are here now, and I want to give you some examples of the point I'm trying to make."
笑声消失了，取而代之的是冰冷的沉默。
The chuckles disappeared and were replaced by stone cold silence.
“我已经给你举了如何解拉格朗日方程的例子。当我和你年纪相仿时，我选修了物理系的这门课程，也选修了电气工程系的这门课，无论是本科生还是大学。研究生水平。我什至在数学系选修了两门课程，这些课程构成了这些材料的基础。在大三和大四之间的暑假里，当我白天、晚上和周末为我的一位教授做研究时，我做了每件事“我提出了自己的问题并做了它们。我想彻底掌握如何在现实世界中应用这些方程的每一个方面、每一个方面、每一个微妙之处、每一个特殊情况。”
"I've given you examples of how to solve Lagrange's equations. When I was about your age, I took the Physics department's equivalents of this class, and I took the Electrical Engineering department's equivalents of this class, in both cases at the undergraduate and graduate level. I even took two classes in the Mathematics department that formed the underpinnings of the material. During the summer between junior and senior year when I did research for one of my professors during the day, at night and on weekends, I did every problem I put my hands on. I made up my own problems and did them. I wanted to thoroughly master every aspect, every facet, every subtlety, every special case of how to apply these equations in the real world."
他停了下来。“我把这个项目一直持续到圣诞节前，课程结束后，当我完成后，我想与某人分享它。我把这本书拿给我的导师看，他说，‘你做了什么？ “刚才所做的就是将方程简化为一组机械求解过程。这根本没有什么特别的。二十年后，一台愚蠢的计算机将能够做你所做的事情。” 我问你，如果我像你们大多数人一样是个宅男，你认为他会那样回应吗？”
He paused. "I kept up the project to just before Christmas time, just after the end of classes, and when I was done, I wanted to share it with someone. I showed the book to my adviser, and he said, 'What you've just done is trivialize the equations to a set of mechanical solution procedures. There's nothing special to that at all. In twenty years a dumb computer will be able to do what you've done.' I ask you, do you think he would have responded that way if I were a homeboy like most of you?"
不，我想。他的顾问一定听过肖克利（Ph.D. '36）关于黑人在基因上较差的说法。种族主义科学家占据了他们神奇的权力地位，并且凭借他们比我们其他人更聪明的事实，他们告诉我们谎言，而我们几乎无力辩论，更不用说反驳了。
No, I thought. His adviser must have heard Shockley's (Ph.D. '36) allegation that blacks are genetically inferior. Racist scientists take their wizardly positions of power, and by virtue of the fact that they're smarter than the rest of us, they tell us lies that we are nearly powerless to debate, much less disprove.
林肯继续说道：“所以我拿着那个笔记本活页夹，那是我在两年多的夜晚和周末准备的，我去了高级住宅院子里的篝火旁，我把它扔在那里，看着它燃烧。当我哭的时候。所以你必须制作自己的笔记本并亲自开创这些解决方案。”
Lincoln continued, "So I took that notebook binder, that one that I'd prepared during more than two years of nights and weekends, and I went to the bonfire in the Senior House courtyard, and I threw it in there and watched it burn while I cried. So you will have to make your own notebooks and pioneer those solutions yourselves."
然后他直视着我的眼睛，有那么一瞬间很不舒服。
Then he looked at me, straight in the eye, for an uncomfortable second.
“现在，我想给你们举一个最近的例子。几周前，我向你们讲授了机电系统中的磁链。你们中的一个人用‘难倒教授’的语气问了一个问题，这表明你正在寻找报复的机会，而且由于我是黑人，你认为我可能很容易被击中。你们中的一个人要求我推导出等式的电气方面，我们机械工程师不会推导的方面通常不会记住。但即使我烧掉了笔记本，我也已经内化了知识，而且你可能还记得，我提出了一个完整的、正确的推导。”
"Now, I'd like to give you a more recent example. A few weeks ago, I lectured to you about flux linkage in an electromechanical system. One of you asked a question in that 'stump the professor' tone of voice, the kind that shows you're looking for a chance to get even, and since I'm black you thought I might be an easy hit. One of you asked me to derive the electrical side of the equation, the side that we mechanical engineers wouldn't normally have committed to memory. But even though I burned my notebook, I had internalized the knowledge, and as you may recall, I presented a complete, correct derivation."
我低头看着地板，将肘部放在桌子上，手放在额头上，以避免进一步的目光接触。他在谈论我。
I looked down at the floor, put my elbow on the desk and my hand across my forehead so as to avoid any further eye contact. He was talking about me.
“我并不是要求你们所有人改变世界。我只是要求你们考虑是否有可能放弃偏见，”他补充道。“现在天气真好，剩下的课时间大家都出去散散步吧，下个雨天我们就可以补讲义材料了。”
"I'm not asking you all to change the world. I'm just asking you to consider the possibility of laying aside your prejudices," he added. "Now, it's a beautiful day. Why don't you all go out and take a walk for the rest of the class time. We can make up the lecture material on the next rainy day."
4月20日
April 20
“嘿，佩珀，我想和你谈谈一些事情，”埃尔登·提利尔说道，一边用手指在我公寓门旁边的墙上敲打着打字的动作。埃尔登是阿特金森学院的新生之一，他住在我的楼下。我们都迷恋辛迪，他制作了精美的声音效果，例如，带有消音器的机关枪以及卢克·天行者和达斯·维德在星球大战中决斗的嗡嗡声虚拟剑。我第一次见到他是在迎新周期间，两个大三学生试图把他赶出房间。
"Hey, Pepper, I want to talk to you about something," Eldon Tyrell said, drumming his fingers in a typing motion on the wall next to the door to my apartment. Eldon was one of the Atkinson freshmen, who lived down the hall from me. We both had a crush on Cindy, and he did fine vocal sound effects of, for example, a machine gun with a silencer on it and the buzzing virtual swords that Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader dueled with in Star Wars. I'd first met him when two juniors were trying to bully him out of his room during orientation week.
埃尔登主修航空航天，涉及流体力学，这是我的强项，我们成了朋友——足够好的朋友，我向他吐露了我的文学抱负。他成为了这方面的盟友、线人。
Eldon was an aero-astro major, which involved fluid mechanics, my forte, and we'd become friends-good enough friends that I'd confided my literary ambitions to him. He became an ally on that front, an informant.
“当然，孩子，进来吧，”我用鲍嘉最好的声音说道。
"Sure, kid, come on in," I said in my best Bogart voice.
他坐在我桌子一端旁边的椅子上，就像客户在私家侦探办公室里坐的椅子一样，是一把黑色的木制研究所发行的办公椅，而我则坐在绿色的带有脚轮的诺加海德扶手转椅上，把脚放在上面。放在桌子上。
He sat in the chair next to the end of my desk, like the chair the client sits in in the private eye's office, a black wooden instituteissue desk chair, and I sat back in the green Naugahyde arm-swivelchair on casters and put my feet up on the desk.
“嘘，谢伊怎么了，孩子？” 我问他（过去式。
"Sho, whadaya got to shay, kid?" I asked him.
“等一下，灯光不对，”他回答道。“我们需要你从传热实验室办公室里拿出来的装饰艺术台灯，让它指向远离我们之间桌子的角落，这样我们就一半在明亮的光线下，一半在阴影中。在那里。让我把灯关掉头顶上的灯。这更符合气氛。”
"Wait a minute, the lighting's not right," he answered. "We need the art deco desk lamp you swiped from your office in the heat transfer lab sort of pointing away from the corner of the desk between us so we're half in bright light, half in shadow. There. And let me turn off the overhead light. That fits the mood much better."
“嘘，谢伊怎么了，孩子？” 我在第二次问他。
"Sho, whadaya got to shay, kid?" I asked him in take two.
“来，让我给你看这个。我刚刚被录取了。我终于进入了 THA。太神奇了；我真的很兴奋。他们昨天才告诉我。来，看看这个。”
"Here, let me show you this. I was just accepted. I'm finally in THA. It's so amazing; I'm really psyched. They just let me know yesterday. Here, look at this."
他在桌子上明亮的地方放了一张纸。信笺顶部印有“鹰之下”字样，信笺抬头还饰有秃鹰的左翼和头部。左边距垂直写着“限制”，下边距用小字写着“出于安全原因，请勿向宿舍中的其他任何人展示此内容。技术黑客协会”。
He put a sheet of paper on the desk in the bright part. At the top of the sheet was printed "Under the Eagle," and the left wing and head of a bald eagle completed the letterhead. The left margin said vertically, "Restricted," and the bottom margin said in fine print, "For security reasons, do not show this to anyone else in your dormitory. The Technology Hackers Association."
高质量的印刷文本有几项公告。“沿着运动场旁边的阿默斯特巷行驶的巴士即将遭到黑客攻击。用手术管水气球攻击肮脏的野兽；请不要使用肥皂——我们不想激怒巴士公司……粉红色水气球的可能性向示威者扔东西……毕业典礼上的《不可能的黑客》；德克斯在 HY 游戏中用气球把我们挖了出来。《不可能的黑客》一定很棒。”
The high-quality printed text had several announcements. "Coming Hack on the buses that drive down Amherst Alley next to athletic field. Attack the dirty beasts with surgical tubing water balloons; no soap, please-we don't want to anger the bus company.... Possibility of pink water balloon throw at demonstrators. ... Impossible Hack at graduation; the Dekes scooped us with the balloon at the H-Y game. Impossible Hack must be good."
我问埃尔登，不可能的黑客计划是什么。
I asked Eldon what the impossible Hack plan was.
“我不能透露细节；我的意思是，我已经告诉你这么多了，我应该开枪射杀你。这么说吧，我们将击败西德特勤局的安全扫荡。看，赫尔穆特·施密特，前西德人校长，计划在大约一个月后的毕业典礼上发表讲话。我们正在计划进行一次黑客攻击，这将使其中一些人失去工作。但这并不容易。我们正在与他们的子孙打交道盖世太保，这些人都很好。但我认为我们能做到。我的意思是，我们的父母和祖父母赢得了战争，不是吗？
"I can't divulge details; I mean, I'm already telling you so much I should shoot you. Let's just say we're going to defeat the West German Secret Service security sweep. See, Helmut Schmidt, the former West German chancellor, is scheduled to speak at graduation in about a month. We're planning a hack that's going to cost a few of those guys their jobs. It's not going to be easy, though. We're dealing with the sons and grandsons of the Gestapo, and these guys are good. But I think we're up to it. I mean, our parents and grandparents won the war, didn't they?"
“是的。” 我不再是鲍嘉，又开始做我自己。我把脚从桌子上移开，靠在椅子上。“那粉红色的水气球呢？”
"Yeah." I stopped being Bogart, started being myself again. I took my feet off the desk and leaned forward in the chair. "What about the pink water balloons?"
“好吧，我对此并不太自豪。其中一些人确实是法西斯分子。我的意思是，我不同意他们所做的一切。你知道麻省理工学院是如何收购 Simplex 拥有的所有土地的，以及他们如何“我们将拆除所有这些出租单元，让许多贫困的剑桥港居民无家可归，然后他们将建造研发办公空间，当他们完成时，这些办公空间可能只是增加了平方英尺到那时波士顿市场可能会出现日益严重的办公空间供过于求的情况吗？” 他反问道。
"Well, that one I'm not too proud of. Some of these guys are really fascists. I mean, I don't agree with everything they do. You know how MIT has acquired all that land owned by Simplex, and how they're going to tear down all those rental units and make a whole lot of poor Cambridgeport residents homeless, and then they're going to build R&D office space that by the time they're through will probably be just an addition of square footage to a growing office space glut that will probably occur in the Boston market by then?" he asked rhetorically.
“是的，”我回答。
"Yes," I answered.
“好吧，THA 高层想从他们示威地点附近的建筑物屋顶向他们扔粉红色的水气球，”他说。“我不太确定这是一个好主意。示威者可能会认为麻省理工学院让我们这样做，然后他们会更加讨厌这个研究所。我的意思是，这就是那些扭曲的、偏执的左派人士看待事物的方式。”
"Well, the THA brass wants to throw pink water balloons at them from the roofs of the buildings near where they're demonstrating," he said. "I'm not so sure it's a good idea. The demonstrators will probably figure MIT put us up to it and then they'll hate the institute even more. I mean that's how those warped, paranoid leftists look at things."
“也许随着你在组织中的进步，你可以从内部改变它，”我说。“但除此之外，请告诉我更多关于你参与的事情。申请程序是什么？”
"Maybe as you advance in the organization you can change it from within," I said. "But aside from that, tell me more about your involvement. What was the application procedure?"
我给了他一杯冰水后，他主动提出接听。
He offered to answer after I gave him a glass of ice water.
“这些人组织得非常好，”他说。“他们给了我这张表格；我的意思是一份打印的表格，就像你填写工作申请一样，比如政府或其他什么的。它询问了各种个人问题，比如我在其中做过哪些黑客行为。高中，我的政治信念是什么，还有很多其他个人问题，我不想让组织之外的任何人看到的事情。这有点像耶鲁大学的骷髅会。不同之处在于，你必须聪明地进入THA，你必须是地主贵族才能进入骷髅会。无论如何，我签署了申请，所以他们抓住了我。例如，如果他们发现我违反了保密誓言，他们都会‘我所要做的就是将我的申请表发送给我的雇主，然后我就会沉没。”
"These guys are incredibly organized," he said. "They gave me this form; I mean a printed form, just like you'd fill out for a job application, like for the government or something. It asked all kinds of personal questions, like what kinds of hacks I'd done in high school, what my political convictions were, and a lot of other personal questions, things I wouldn't want anyone outside the organization to see. It's sort of like Skull and Bones at Yale. The difference is that you have to be smart to get into THA, and you have to be a landed gentry blueblood to get into Skull and Bones. Anyway, I signed the application, so they've got me. If they find out I violated the confidentiality oath, for example, all they'll have to do is send my application form to my employer, and I'll be sunk."
“别担心，我会给你改名字的。”我说。“这次行动听起来就像我读到的有关情报组织的内容。”
"Don't worry, I'll change your name," I said. "The operation sounds like what I've read about intelligence organizations."
“你最好相信这一点，”埃尔登回答道。“他们有部门领导什么的。甚至还有情报部长。他们有关于看门人何时打扫教室以及警察巡查的情况的文件。这样他们就知道如何制造转移注意力。如果他们进行黑客攻击时，一支队伍将在远离 CP 活动范围的区域创建一个转移点。X 名 CP 将调查该转移点，并且必须撬开或闯入的门将不会发热。部长“情报人员还会收集其他随机信息；他会监听谈话，诸如此类的事情。这有点恶心，但真的很有趣。我可以喜欢在某人的房子里安装窃听器或窃听某人的电话。”
"You better believe it," Eldon answered. "They've got section heads and everything. There's even a minister of intelligence. They have files on when the janitors clean the classrooms and what the rounds of the CPs are. That way they know how to create a diversion. If they're going to do a hack, one team will create a diversion in an area away from the CPs' beat. X number of CPs will investigate the diversion, and the door that has to be picked or broken into will be free of heat. The minister of intelligence also goes around collecting other random information; he listens in on conversations, things like that. It's kind of sick but it's really fun. I could enjoy putting bugs into someone's house or tapping someone's phone."
“然后剥夺一些你努力保护的自由？” 我问。
"And take away some of the freedom you're working to protect?" I asked.
“听着，没关系。如果你发现的只是丈夫不忠，而妻子却不知道，那又怎样。你不会用这些信息做任何事情。这是森林里的老树倒下。”不是一个好主意。我真的可以从中得到乐趣。不过我永远不会杀任何人。但是天哪，我可能在中央情报局的职业生涯中，五年后我可能会杀人，我不相信那。”
"Look. It doesn't matter. So what if all you find out is that the husband is being unfaithful and the wife doesn't know it. You won't do anything with that information. It's the old tree falling in the forest not making a sound idea. I could really have fun with this. I'd never kill anyone though. But gosh, I'm probably on a CIA career track and in five years I might be killing people and I don't believe in that."
我回答说：“别担心。你不会杀死任何人。至少不会直接杀人，”我说。
I responded, "Don't worry about it. You won't kill anyone. Not directly anyway," I said.
“直接或间接，我不喜欢它。这违背了我的宗教信仰。不过，我认为你是对的。他们可能会分包所有的打击。我很确定从THA到中央情报局有一条管道，就像“骷髅会就是这样。例如，我们有 OSS 开锁指南。战略服务办公室……他们是中央情报局的前身。”
"Directly or indirectly, I don't like it. It's against my religion. I think you're right, though. They probably subcontract all the hits. I'm pretty sure there is a pipeline from THA to the CIA, just like there is with Skull and Bones. For example, we have the OSS guide to lockpicking. The Office of Strategic Services ... they were the precursor of the CIA."
“是的，但现在这是一份公开文件。你可能可以从国家技术信息服务处订购它，”我反驳道。
"Yeah, but that's a public document by now. You can probably order it from the National Technical Information Service," I countered.
“不管怎样。不过，你应该看看它。它有各种各样的技巧。看，撬锁的蛮力方法就是把他们称之为耙子的东西放进去。但耙子的问题是，你可以将光照射到钥匙孔中并判断锁是否被撬开。所以还有另一个带有钩子的小工具。”
"Whatever. You should see it, though. It has all kinds of tricks in it. See, the brute force way to pick a lock is to put this thing they call a rake into it. But the problem with the rake is that you can shine a light into the keyhole and tell whether the lock has been picked. So there's this other little tool with a hook in it."
他从口袋里掏出钥匙链，给我看了一小块金属，看起来有点像瑞士军刀的开罐器。
He took his keychain out of his pocket and showed me a short piece of metal that looked sort of like a can opener from a Swiss army knife.
埃尔登继续解释。“你一次只选取一个别针，没有人对此一无所知。一些资深的中央情报局人员可以在十五秒内选取七个别针。它是选取，拉动，转动手柄，选取，拉动，转动手柄，直到你宾果游戏在。”
Eldon continued the explanation. "You just pick one pin at a time, and no one knows anything about it. Some veteran CIA guys can pick seven pins in fifteen seconds. It's pick, pull, turn handle, pick, pull, turn handle, until bingo you're in."
“CP们不觉得你们很烦吗？” 我问。
"Don't the CPs find you guys annoying?" I asked.
“不是真的。根据我们的宪法，我们不能造成任何破坏。有一次，有一群人闯入绿色大楼的顶部，偷走了空袭警报器。CP们以为这是THA，但实际上是一些哭泣兄弟会男孩们。THA 开始执行一项小任务，并于第二天返回警报器，并附有一张纸条，上面写着“THA 提供”。另外，对于门和锁，我们绝不会用钳子或虎钳进行攻击。如果黑客需要拆除整个门把手，然后重新组装，我们就会这么做。这就是我们的运作方式。”
"Not really. It's in our constitution that we can't do any damage. One time some group broke into the top of the Green Building and stole the air raid warning sirens. The CPs thought it was THA, but it was actually some sniveling frat boys. THA embarked on a little mission and returned the sirens the next day, with a note saying, 'Courtesy THA.' Plus, with doors and locks, we never attack them with pliers or vice grips. If the hack requires removing an entire door handle and then reassembling it later, that's what we'll do. That's just the way we operate."
“你已经破解了吗？”
"Have you hacked yet?"
“是的。前几天我刚刚执行任务。我们破解了图书馆的圆顶。这真是太神奇了。我们在会议室会面，回顾了我们所有的任务以及我们将发送和接收的信号以了解这一点海岸没有危险。我们同步了手表，然后当我们沿着走廊行走时，领队在几个地方看到拐角处有一只匿名的手作为信号，我的意思是时机恰到好处。我们继续前进，爬到了圆顶顶部，在那里野餐。太棒了，我的意思是凌晨三点查尔斯河以及整个剑桥和麻省理工学院的景色。这是一个入门黑客。我不知道哪一个圆顶黑客攻击更难，他们在上面放了一个电话亭，当警察上去检查时，或者当我们把一头活牛放在那里时，电话就会响。”
"Yeah. I just went on a mission the other day. We hacked the dome in the library. It was just so amazing. We met in a conference room and reviewed all our tasks and what signals we'd send and receive to know that the coast was clear. We synchronized our watches and then when we were walking down the corridor the group leader saw just an anonymous hand around a corner as a signal at a couple of places, I mean with perfect timing. We went ahead and climbed to the top of the dome and had sort of a picnic up there. It was awesome, I mean what a view at three in the morning of the Charles and all of Cambridge and MIT. It was a starter hack. I don't know which dome hack was tougher, the one when they put a phone booth up there and the phone rang when the CPs went up to check it out, or when we put a live cow up there."
“把一头牛放在那里太残忍了，”我说。
"It's cruel to put a cow up there," I said.
“不完全是；看，奶牛不会走下坡路，所以奶牛不会有任何伤害自己的危险。无论如何，在我们完成黑客攻击后，我们在预定的时间回到会议室讨论结果。 .这太棒了。我的意思是它太有趣了，太可怕了。想一想；很多中央情报局的人都是成熟的黑客，他们认为这是一个游戏。就像他们说的，“好吧，孩子们，是时候做点小工作了” “为了总统，”当然，总统对此一无所知。我几乎可以肯定公司在这里招聘。
"Not really; see, cows don't walk downhill, so there wasn't any danger of the cow's hurting itself. Anyway, after we were done with the hack we met back at the conference room at the prearranged time to discuss the results. It was great. I mean it was so much fun it's scary. And just think; a lot of the CIA guys are just overgrown hackers and they think it's a game. Like they say, 'OK boys, time to do a little job for the prez,' and of course the prez would know nothing about it. I'm almost sure the Company recruits here."
我削了铅笔。“这很有趣，”我说。“中央情报局是公司，麻省理工学院是由公司运营的。我想我发现了一种趋势。”
I sharpened my pencil. "That's interesting," I said. "The CIA is the Company, MIT is run by the Corporation. I think I detect a trend."
“是啊，不过你最好别写这个。”
"Yeah, but you better not write that."
“为什么不？”
"Why not?"
“因为你可能会失去校友运动特权。或者没有雇主会碰你。或者可能会对你的信用评级产生不利影响。”
"Because you could lose your alumni athletic privileges. Or no employer will touch you. Or it might adversely affect your credit rating."
“噢，得了吧，埃尔登，人们只担心苏联的那种事情。我们这里有言论自由。”
"Aw, come on, Eldon, people only worry about that kind of thing in the Soviet Union. We have freedom of speech here."
“是的，当然，我们可以打印任何我们想要的裸体，但如果你让人们认为你可能会被贴上颠覆分子的标签。我想说的是要小心。顺便说一句，不要对任何激进的原教旨主义者发火。” “宗教团体。你不想用余生从一个安全屋搬到另一个安全屋。”
"Yeah, sure, we can print whatever naked bodies we want, but if you make people think you might be labeled a subversive. All I'm saying is be careful. And by the way, don't flame about any radical fundamentalist 'religious' groups. You don't want to spend the rest of your life moving from safe house to safe house."
“太晚了；我刚刚这么做了。告诉我更多关于 THA 的事情。”
"It's too late; I just did. Tell me more about THA."
“抱歉，我不知道更多了。它是在蜂窝网络中组织的，所以我只认识协会中的其他四个人。在我晋级之前，都会保持这种状态。”
"Sorry, I don't know any more. It's organized in a cellular network, so I only know four other people in the Association. It'll stay that way until I advance."
“那你要如何进步呢？”
"And how do you advance?"
“通过做好事，”埃尔登回答道。“根本不按资历，不象公司、工会，像情报部长，现在才大二，去年他把所有的时间都花在了黑客上，整晚都在黑客，白天睡觉，他就差一点了。”不及格就被退学了。现在想想，他还挺聪明的。他在大一的时候，所有的课程都是及格不及格的情况下，就完成了晋级。我不知道他是否是这么计划的。”
"By being good," Eldon answered. "It's not by seniority at all, not like in companies and trade unions. Like the minister of intelligence, he's only a sophomore now. Last year he spent all his time hacking. It was hack all night, sleep all day, and he almost flunked out. Come to think of it, he was pretty smart. He did his advancing as a freshman when all the courses are pass-fail. I wonder whether he planned it that way."
“他现在怎么样了？”
"How's he doing now?"
“他做得很好。事实上，我不应该知道他是谁，但他为我打开了一扇门，我认出了他的运动鞋。他实际上是我的朋友。我的意思是，我不知道。”
"He's doing really well. Actually, I'm not supposed to know who he is, but he opened a door for me and I recognized his sneakers. He's actually a friend of mine. I mean, I had no idea."
“也许你可以追随他的脚步，”我说。“顺便问一下，我有没有告诉过你中央情报局给我发了一封招募信？”
"Maybe you can follow in his footsteps," I said. "By the way, did I tell you the CIA sent me a recruiting letter?"
“哦，哇，真的是真的。他们确实在这里招聘。你知道他们是怎么找到你的地址的吗？” 埃尔登问道。
"Oh, wow. It really is true. They do recruit here. Do you know how they found your address?" Eldon asked.
“我把简历放在了就业办公室的简历簿里。这是我唯一能想到的。”
"I put my resume in the resume book at the placement office. That's the only thing I can think of."
“那封信你还留着吗？我可以看一下吗？”
"Do you still have the letter? May I look at it?"
“当然。它在我的公文包里。”我说。我把箱子放在桌子上。我父母把它送给我作为圣诞节礼物，以备即将到来的工作面试之用。
"Sure. It's here in my briefcase," I said. I put the case on the desk. My parents had given it to me for Christmas for upcoming job interviews.
“酷，”埃尔登说。“我不知道你有一个公文包。我可以玩一下吗？”
"Cool," Eldon said. "I didn't know you had a briefcase. Can I play with it for a second?"
“当然，”我说，然后把它递给了他。
"Sure," I said and handed it to him.
埃尔登变成了Q，一个在英国特勤局总部地下室里穿着实验服、听起来很聪明的英国人。“现在你看，邦德，这个公文包是专门为各种紧急情况配备的。如果你想释放毒气，请一次松开一个闩锁。如果你不想让毒气逸出，请松开它们一起。记住这一点。毒药，一次一颗。没有毒药，一起。你的相机是底部的黄铜配件；你必须用钥匙链上的特殊工具将其取下。如果你丢失了钥匙，就会弹出软饮料罐的顶部就可以了。另一个黄铜配件是匕首。邦德，这次请不要丢失它。我们花了两个月的时间为你准备它，你知道我们多么讨厌重做工作”。
Eldon became Q, the smart-sounding British guy in the lab jacket in the basement of the headquarters of Her Majesty's Secret Service. "Now you see, Bond, this briefcase is specially equipped for all types of emergencies. If you'd like to release the poison gas, release the latches one at a time. If you don't want gas to come out, release them together. Remember that. Poison, one at a time. No poison, together. Your camera is this brass fitting on the bottom; you'll have to remove it with the special tool on your keychain. If you lose your keys, the pop top from a soft drink can will do. The other brass fitting is the dagger. And, Bond, please don't lose it this time. It took us two months to prepare it for you, and you know how we hate to redo work."
我说：“你做得很好，你应该去当演员。”
I said, "You do that well. You ought to be an actor."
埃尔登回答道：“没什么，直接从电影里走出来的。反正我在公司工作的话，会有很多机会当演员。我们看看这封信吧。”
Eldon answered, "It's nothing; just straight out of the movie. Anyway, if I work for the Company, I'll have plenty of opportunities to be an actor. Let's take a look at the letter."
我开始打开公文包。
I started to open the briefcase.
埃尔登说：“别忘了。没有毒药，在一起。”
Eldon said, "Don't forget. No poison, together."
我同时打开了两个门闩。
I opened both latches at the same time.
信的顶部有一个较小版本的老鹰，它位于埃尔登来自 THA 的信的顶部。
The top of the letter had a smaller version of the eagle that was on the top of Eldon's letter from THA.
“你也有信封吗？”
"Do you have the envelope, too?"
我把信封给了他。
I gave him the envelope.
“这很有趣，”埃尔登说。“上面没有回信地址。上面写着‘不得转出美国’。” 一定是这样，当你暑假在保加利亚摘苹果时，这封信就不会转发给你。否则，克格勃保加利亚分部会认为这是密码，你是一名特工，他们就会“把你扔进监狱。我们必须放弃他们的一个人才能把你救出来，那太浪费了。”
"That's interesting," Eldon said. "There's no return address on it. And it says 'Not to be forwarded out of the United States.' That must be so when you're on your summer vacation picking apples in Bulgaria the letter won't be forwarded to you. Otherwise, the Bulgarian branch of the KGB would figure it was in code, you were an operative, and they'd throw you in jail. We'd have to give up one of their guys to get you out, and that would be a waste."
埃尔登读着这封信，他的嘴唇移动得非常快，他的眼睛一行一行地扫描，大约每秒五行。
Eldon read the letter, moving his lips really fast as he read, his eyes scanning line by line about five lines per second.
“哦，酷，”他说。“你会做 Q 所做的所有事情。看看这个。‘高科技收集设备’，读作虫子。‘照片光学机械设备’，读作缩微胶卷相机。”
"Oh, cool," he said. "You'll be doing all the things that Q does. Look at this. 'High-technology collection devices,' read bugs. 'Photo-optical-mechanical devices,' read microfilm cameras."
“不过，我不知道我是否会坚持到底。必须更好地利用技术来保护我们的自由和生活水平。”
"I don't know whether I'll follow through on it, though. There must be better uses of technology to protect our liberties and standard of living."
“像什么？”
"Like what?"
“我不知道，数一下灯泡什么的。”
"I don't know, counting light bulbs or something."
“嘿，我最近听到了几个关于灯泡的笑话，”埃尔登说。“换一个灯泡需要多少塔夫茨大学的学生？”
"Hey, I heard a couple of good light bulb jokes recently," Eldon said. "How many Tufts students does it take to change a light bulb?"
“我不知道。有多少？”
"I don't know. How many?"
“只有一个，但他们可以得到十二个学分。换一个灯泡需要多少个研究生？”
"Only one, but they get twelve credits for it. How many graduate students does it take to change a light bulb?"
“我不知道。有多少？”
"I don't know. How many?"
“只有一个，但需要十年。我现在得走了。大八或两个问题明天到期。嘿，顺便说一下。不要告诉任何人我的名字。在所有 THA 邮件中，他们只使用名字和姓氏首字母“匿名是关键。我告诉你的一切都是机密。如果你在我毕业之前发表它，那真的会毁掉我的未来，”埃尔登说。
"Only one, but it takes ten years. I gotta go now. Big eight oh two problem set due tomorrow. Hey, by the way. Don't tell anyone my name. In all THA mailings they use only first names and last initials; anonymity is key. And everything I've told you is classified. If you publish it before I graduate it could really mess up my future," Eldon said.
“我有一种令人陶醉的力量感，有点像鲍勃·伍德沃德，”我说。
"I have a heady feeling of power, sort of like Bob Woodward," I said.
“是啊，你为什么不叫我深喉？不，这太俗气了。哦，我知道。Chromedome 怎么样？或者甘地？是的，甘地，就是这样。那就太好了。简称我甘德吧无论如何，就像我说的，我得走了。记住。不要对任何人透露我的真实身份。
"Yeah, why don't you call me Deep Throat? Nah, that's too tacky. Oh, I know. How about Chromedome? Or Gandhi? Yeah, Gandhi, that's it. That'll be great. Just call me Gand for short. Anyway, like I say, I gotta go. Remember. Not a word to anyone about who I really am.
“好的，甘德。”
"Okay, Gand."
章节
C H A P T E R
16
16
闪电爸爸
Papa Flash
1983 年 5 月 5 日
May 5, 1983
每年的德比赛日都是烤烤牛排。Steer Roast是Senior House对返校周末的回应，校友们回来回忆辉煌的岁月，本科生们在考试前最后玩一次。
Steer Roast is on Derby Day every year. Steer Roast is Senior House's answer to homecoming weekend, when alums come back to remember the glory days and undergrads play one last time before exams.
那是一个美丽而温暖的周六下午，院子里挤满了人，至少有几百人，坐在野餐桌旁，吃着牛肉或素食烤宽面条和玉米棒。一群前导师组成的蓝草乐队在角落的舞台上演奏，Sport Death 旗帜在 Runkle 4 的微风中轻轻飘扬。闪光灯发明者 Edgerton 教授演奏了勺子。
It was a beautiful warm Saturday afternoon, and the courtyard was jammed with people, a couple of hundred at least, sitting at picnic tables, eating their beef or vegetarian lasagna and corn on the cob. A bluegrass group of former tutors played from the stage at one corner, and the Sport Death banner waved gently in the breeze from Runkle 4. Professor Edgerton, the strobe inventor, played the spoons.
高级之家校友俱乐部在现实世界中是自由球员。从谈话的点点滴滴中，我了解到许多人在初创公司工作，以获得丰厚的薪水和股票期权。其他人则在家中使用个人电脑进行软件咨询，例如黛安·米切尔（Dianne Mitchell），只是为了更高的赌注。其他人则在 Sun、Lotus、Apple 或硅谷的初创企业中拥有较少的员工徽章和股票期权。
The Senior House alumni club were free agents in the real world. From the dribs and drabs of the conversations, I gathered that many worked at start-up companies for good pay and stock options. Others did software consulting at home on their personal computers, like Dianne Mitchell, only for higher stakes. Others had low employee badge numbers and stock options at Sun, Lotus, Apple, or start-ups in Silicon Valley.
他们喜欢Senior House，在做他们喜欢做的事情（黑客）赚了10万美元之后，他们对麻省理工学院的记忆似乎也变得更加美好了。我希望有一天我对麻省理工学院的回忆会是美好的。
They loved Senior House, and after making $100K doing what they loved to do-hack-it seemed that their memories of MIT had become a little fonder, too. I hoped my memories of MIT would be fond some day.
玛丽回到高级之家参加聚会，我们坐在一张野餐桌旁。她穿着运动死亡T恤。
Mary had come back to Senior House for the reunion and we sat next to each other at one of the picnic tables. She wore her Sport Death T-shirt.
“这会唤起你的回忆吗？” 我问她。
"Does this bring back memories?" I asked her.
“一些。”
"Some."
“好的，坏的？”
"Good ones, bad ones?"
“两者都有一些。”
"Some of both."
朗克尔的一名二年级学生穿着棒球接球手的服装，打着雨伞。他站在格雷总统花园围墙旁边的桌子上，向下挥动双手，让集会安静下来。
A sophomore from Runkle wore a baseball catcher's outfit and carried an umbrella. He stood on the table next to President Gray's garden wall and waved his hands downward to quiet the assembly.
“现在就是你一直在等待的那一刻了。如你所知，”他说，“去年我被选为高级学院‘最令人讨厌的新生’。根据该职位赋予我的权力，我特此宣布83 年 MOF 的霍华德·格尔曼 (Howard Gelman)。”
"And now for the moment you've been waiting for. As you know," he said, "last year I was selected the 'Most Obnoxious Freshman' of Senior House. By the powers of that office bestowed upon me, I hereby pronounce Howard Gelman M.O.F. of '83."
就是那个来自大厅的怪异孩子，第一个来参加我秋季学习休息的孩子，他预测了其他人的泊松到达分布。每个人都从他的桌子上散开，他躲在桌子下面。玉米芯开始朝他的方向飞来。不是曲线棒子，只是豆棒子快速棒子。暴民们聚集在他的桌子上，从近距离向他毫无保护的一侧投掷，带着一般狂热分子用石头砸死的热情。他迅速从野餐桌的另一端爬出，一路猛冲向格雷家花园的围墙。
It was that geeky kid from down the hall, the first one to come to my study break in the fall, the one who predicted the Poisson arrival distribution of the others. Everyone scattered from his table and he ducked under it. The corncobs started flying in his direction. Not curve cobs, just bean cob fast cobs. The mob converged on his table and pelted his unprotected side from point-blank range with all the fervor of generic zealots at a stoning. He speed-crawled out the other end of the picnic table and dashed toward the Grays' garden wall, pelted all the way.
我想让它停止。玛丽没有说话，也没有扔任何东西。我也没有，数百万德国人也没有。
I wanted to make it stop. Mary didn't say or throw anything. Neither did I. Neither did millions of Germans.
当暴民投掷剩余的射弹时，孩子举起一把折叠椅挡住自己的脸。戴着捕手面具的大二学生问道：“你对获奖感言有什么想说的吗？”
The kid held up a folding chair to shield his face while the mob hurled the remaining projectiles. The sophomore in the catcher's mask said, "What would you like to say for your acceptance speech?"
我很惊讶他竟然能做出回应。
I was amazed that he could respond at all.
“出色地。” 津，毛皮。“我……”佩尔特“……在没有先咨询我的律师的情况下不能接受这个奖项。”
"Well." Zing, pelt. "I ..." Pelt "... can't accept the award without first consulting my lawyer."
周日晚上，我和约翰·多尔西谈论了玉米棒子的事。
Sunday night I talked to John Dorsey about the cobbing.
“我对霍华德·格尔曼昨天发生的事情感到非常难过，”我说。
"I feel terrible about what happened to Howard Gelman yesterday," I said.
“这是这里的传统，”约翰说。“通常孩子知道它要来了，就会拿着雨伞或其他东西作为盾牌。今年，情况有点失控了。一位精神病学家朋友表示，他们正在向自己的自我形象扔玉米芯；因为很多孩子如果他们在高中时被遗弃，他们就会利用这个机会挑出一个人并用石头砸死他或她。这源于异教徒的活人祭祀传统。”
"It's a tradition around here," John said. "Usually the kid knows it's coming and has an umbrella or something as a shield. This year it went a little out of control. A psychiatrist friend sug gested that they're throwing corncobs at their own self-images; since many of these kids were outcasts in high school, they take this chance to single out one and stone him or her. It follows from the pagan tradition of human sacrifice."
“我不知道。我仍然觉得这很恶心。我只能看到那个可怜的家伙给家里写信。‘亲爱的爸爸妈妈，昨天宿舍里的每个人都向我扔玉米芯。我真的很受欢迎。’ ”
"I don't know. I still think it's sick. I can just see that poor guy writing a letter home. 'Dear Mom and Dad, Everyone in the dorm threw corncobs at me yesterday. I'm really popular.' "
1983 年 5 月 22 日
May 22, 1983
“呃，你好，请问我可以和埃哲顿医生通话吗？” 我在电话里问他的秘书。
"Uh, hello, may I speak with Doctor Edgerton, please?" I asked his secretary on the phone.
“等一下。”
"Just a minute."
“呃，你好，埃哲顿医生。我叫佩珀·怀特，是斯隆实验室的一名学生，我想知道是否可以约个时间和你谈谈一些照片。你明天有时间吗？”
"Uh, hello, Doctor Edgerton. My name is Pepper White and I'm a student at the Sloan Lab, and I was wondering whether I could make an appointment to talk to you about some pictures. Do you have any time tomorrow?"
“现在怎么了？” 他轻快地回答。“你忙？”
"What's the matter with now?" he answered briskly. "You busy?"
“呃，我要和一个人开会……”
"Uh, I have a meeting with a ..."
“你很忙，明天九点三十分怎么样？”
"You are busy. How about tomorrow at 9:30?"
“好的，先生。谢谢您。”
"Okay, sir. Thank you."
5月23日
May 23
我来到 4 号楼的四楼，大厅里摆满了陈列柜，去年我第一次去图书馆做文献调查时就很欣赏这些陈列柜。当时我并不知道我的工作可能会与埃哲顿博士（Doc Edgerton）接触，他是该研究所当时的传奇人物。埃哲顿博士本可以与埃菲尔（如《塔楼》）、爱迪生或贝尔一起保持自己的地位。我想知道我是否能和他一起坚持下去。
I went to the fourth floor in Building 4, the hall lined with display cases that I'd admired on my first trip to the library to do my literature survey the year before. I had no idea then that my work might involve rubbing elbows with Doc Edgerton, the institute's legend in his own time. Doc Edgerton could have held his own with Eiffel (as in Tower), or with Edison, or with Bell. I wondered whether I could hold my own with him.
1903 年，多克出生于内布拉斯加州，这一年是莱特兄弟首次飞行的年份。他曾就读于内布拉斯加大学，并作为研究生来到麻省理工学院电气工程系。尽管他只是麻省理工学院的毕业生（硕士、博士），但他在 1932 年就成为了一名助理教授。
Doc was born in Nebraska in 1903, the year of the Wright Brothers' first flight. He went to the University of Nebraska and came to MIT as a graduate student in the Electrical Engineering department. Even though he was only MIT squared (M.S., Ph.D.), he'd become an assistant professor in 1932.
作为他博士学位的副产品。在研究中，他首先开发了频闪摄影技术，这是他与两名研究生 Germeshausen 和 Grier 创立公司的基础。EG&G., Inc. 发展迅速，使 Doc 和他的合伙人成为马萨诸塞州最富有的三人。
As a by-product of his Ph.D. research, he first developed the strobe photography techniques that were the basis for the company he founded with two of his graduate students, Germeshausen and Grier. E.G.&G., Inc., grew rapidly, making Doc and his partners three of the richest men in Massachusetts.
但多克首先是一名工程师，更不用说是一名中西部人，所以他对任何走进他办公室的人都保持友好和开放的态度。
But Doc was first and foremost an engineer, not to mention a midwesterner, so he remained friendly and open to whoever wandered into his office.
四楼的走廊被称为频闪巷，两旁排列着大幅清晰的照片，所有这些照片都是由埃杰顿的频闪发明实现的：飞行中冻结的蝙蝠、马戏团杂技演员翻筋斗的轨迹、踢的足球、米基·鲁尼搂着朱迪·加兰，微笑着唱歌。
The fourth floor hallway, called Strobe Alley, was lined with large, clear photographs, all made possible by Edgerton's strobe invention: a bat frozen in flight, a somersaulting circus acrobat's trajectory, a football being kicked, Mickey Rooney with his arm around Judy Garland, smiling and singing.
大厅的另一侧陈列着 20 世纪 40 年代风格的黑色金属电子产品盒，上面贴有“EG&G”金属标签。其他柜子里展示着古代沉船残骸——嗯，金属花瓶，那些你在博物馆里能看到的东西。
On the other side of the hall cases displayed 1940s-style black metal electronics boxes with "EG&G" metal tags attached. Other cases displayed relics of ancient shipwrecks-ums, metal vases, things you'd see in a museum.
我穿过画着“进入”的门，走到一张工作台前，医生正在和一个七十多岁的年轻人交谈。他们都站着，手里拿着一些看起来像是装在塑料袋里的一卷卷湿纸巾的东西。地板上躺着一个四英尺长的黄色鱼雷状物体，旁边是另一个标有 EG&G 的盒子。Doc开始将其中一卷纸巾放入EG&G盒中；该盒子是一个图表记录器，用于记录鱼雷发送的数据，也称为侧扫声纳。
I went through the door with "Enter" painted on it and walked to a workbench where Doc was talking to a younger man in his mid-seventies. They were both standing up and held things that looked like rolls of wet paper towels in plastic bags. A fourfoot-long yellow torpedolike thing lay on the floor, next to another box with EG&G marked on it. Doc started to put one of the paper towel rolls into the EG&G box; the box was a chart recorder to record data sent from the torpedo, also known as side-scan sonar.
“我能为你做什么，儿子？” 医生问道。
"What can I do for you, son?" Doc asked.
“我昨天下午打电话预约了。”
"I called yesterday afternoon to make an appointment."
“哦，是的。我记得，”医生说。“你怎么了？”
"Oh yeah. I remember," Doc said. "What's your problem?"
“我正在研究一台快速压缩机。它在斯隆汽车实验室。”
"I'm working on a rapid compression machine. It's in the Sloan Auto Lab."
“是的，我知道斯隆实验室，”他说。“一个名叫德雷珀的年轻人在三十年代在那里做了一些柴油发动机的工作。你打算做什么他没有做过的事情？”
"Yeah, I know the Sloan Lab," he said. "A young guy by the name of Draper did some work on a diesel engine there in the thirties. What are you going to do that he didn't do?"
“嗯，我们更了解我们正在做的事情，”我说。
"Well, we know more about what we're doing," I said.
“如果我打电话给斯塔克·德雷珀并告诉他你是这么说的？”
"Suppose I call Stark Draper and tell him you said that?"
我真的不想与惯性制导系统的发明者进行一对一的交谈，该系统使导弹着陆在目标上并将人类送上月球。“我认为这没有必要。我只是说，我们可以在快速压缩机中比德雷珀教授在真正的发动机中更精确地控制我们的操作参数。我正在尝试制作一些有关柴油喷雾的电影，我想你也许能够告诉我一些可用的技术。我们正在使用高速电影摄影机、HYCAM，以及……”
I didn't really want to go one-on-one with the inventor of the inertial guidance system that makes missiles land on target and put men on the moon. "I don't think that will be necessary. I just mean that we can control our operating parameters more precisely in the rapid compression machine than Professor Draper could in a real engine. I'm trying to make some movies of a diesel fuel spray, and I thought you might be able to tell me about some of the techniques available. We're using a high-speed movie camera, a HYCAM, and..."
“那你都准备好了，有什么需要跟我谈的。”
"You're all set then. What do you need to talk to me about."
“我想你可以告诉我是否有比我们更快的东西，或者你们是否有速度更快的相机。”
"I thought you could tell me whether there's anything faster than what we have or whether you have any cameras that go faster."
“你必须和我的同事查理·米勒谈谈这个问题。他是电影专家，”多克说。“技术发展最快的速度约为每秒 10,000 帧。您想要多少帧？”
"You'll have to talk to my colleague Charlie Miller about that. He's the expert on movies," Doc said. "The fastest that technology goes is about 10,000 frames per second. How many frames you want?"
“五万就不错了。”
"Fifty thousand would be nice."
“是的。你就像其他人一样，总是试图拍摄越来越多的照片，但看到的却越来越少。现在，如果你用不到一微秒的闪光灯进行一次曝光，这可能是有教育意义的。然后你可以看到一些单独的燃料滴，获得一些好的分辨率。我们喜欢拍摄 4 x 5 英寸的照片，然后将其放大到几平方英尺，然后你就开始看到到底发生了什么。你想尝试一下吗？”
"Yep. You're just like everyone else, always trying to take pictures of more and more and you see less and less. Now if you take a single exposure with a fraction-of-a-microsecond flash, that might be educational. Then you could see some individual fuel droplets, get some good resolution. We like to take a 4-by-5-inch print and then blow it up to a couple of feet square and then you begin to see what's really going on. Would you like to try that?"
“当然，”我说。“我想要拍摄有史以来最好的柴油喷雾照片。”
"Sure," I said. "I'd like to have the best pictures of a diesel fuel spray that've ever been taken."
“很好。这是比利·麦克罗伯茨，”多克指着那个七十多岁的年轻人说道。“他是我的技术员。让我们三个看看能找到什么。”
"Good. This here's Billy MacRoberts," Doc said, motioning to the younger man in his mid-seventies. "He's my technician. Let's the three of us see what we can find."
我们三个人走到笔记本前，他们记录了他们借出的设备。原来他们借给我的设备是1981年借给Ben的研究前辈的，承诺的归还日期是1981年5月25日。
The three of us went to the notebook where they recorded what equipment they'd lent out. It turned out that the equipment they'd lent me had been lent to Ben's research predecessor in 1981. The promised return date was May 25, 1981.
“两天后就到期了，”医生说。“哦。那是 1981 年，不是 1983 年。这个 Vilchis 家伙到底在哪里？” 他指着表格上的名字问道。
"It's due in two days," Doc said. "Oh. That's 1981, not 1983. Where is this Vilchis guy anyway?" he asked, referring to the name on the form.
“他一年前毕业了，”我说。
"He graduated a year ago," I said.
“我们下去看看能不能找到那些东西，”多克说。
"Let's go down there and see whether we can find that stuff," Doc said.
他护送我到牢房。我向他展示了我们安装的电子设备盒，并解释了我们如何拍摄第一部关于燃油喷射的高速电影。本不在身边，尼克也找不到这些东西，所以我问医生是否想看我上周拍的电影。
He escorted me to my cell. I showed him the electronics boxes we'd installed, and I explained how we'd shot the first high-speed movies of the fuel spray. Ben wasn't around and Nick couldn't find the stuff, so I asked Doc whether he wanted to see the movie I'd made the week before.
“当然。让我们看一下，”他说。
"Sure. Let's take a look," he said.
我架起投影仪，尽量不笨手笨脚，以免弄乱影片的线索。比我以前做的时候花了更长的时间，但第一次就成功了。
I set up the projector and tried not to be a klutz and mess up the threading of the film. It took longer than when I did it before but it worked the first time.
“需要影片的大部分时间才能到达我们看到正在发生的情况。HYCAM 必须达到全速，”我说。
"It takes most of the film to reach where we see what's happening. The HYCAM has to reach full speed," I said.
“是的。这就是高速摄影行业的问题。大部分胶卷都被扔进了垃圾桶，”他回答道。
"Yep. That's the problem with this high-speed photography business. Most of the film goes in the trash," he answered.
影片开始一分钟后，燃油喷射出现了。光线充足、焦点清晰、清晰。“你可以想象当我第一次运行这个东西并等待看我是否接受注射时我的焦虑，”我说。
A minute into the film, the fuel jet appeared. It was well-lit, in focus, and clear. "You can imagine my anxiety the first time I ran this thing and waited to see whether I caught the injection," I said.
“那是一张好照片。你第一次看到它时一定很激动。” 他说这话的时候充满信心。
"That's a good picture. It must have been a thrill the first time you saw it." He said it with conviction.
本敲了敲放映室的门，我们三个人下楼来到本的牢房，发现了比尔制作的一些小金属和玻璃碎片。它们位于本储藏柜的随机垃圾区。
Ben knocked on the door to the screening room and the three of us went downstairs to Ben's cell and found some little pieces of metal and glass that Bill had made. They were in the random junk section of Ben's storage cabinet.
“是啊。就是这个东西，”医生说。“我们把它带回实验室，让比利来修复它。”
"Yeah. This is the stuff," Doc said. "Let's take it back to the lab and get Billy to fix it."
其中一块玻璃看起来像一根试管，开口端有熔化的塑料。医生讲了一个故事。
One of the pieces of glass looked like a test tube, with melted plastic at the open end. Doc told a story.
“几年前，比尔和我安装了其中一个闪光灯，我们发现包裹在其周围的塑料线吸收了大部分热量，几乎防止了它破裂。我们在其周围放置了两倍的塑料，但它并没有破裂。”不要破坏。这就是工程。”
"A couple of years ago Bill and I had one of these flashes set up, and we found that plastic wire wrapped around it absorbed most of the heat and almost prevented it from breaking. We put twice as much plastic around it, and it didn't break. That's engineering."
我们穿过 13 号楼往回走，经过了万尼瓦尔·布什 (Vannevar Bush，16 岁) 在钻床前的照片，他穿着丝绒衬衫。“你从哪里来？” 医生问道。
We walked back through Building 13, past the photo of Vannevar Bush ('16) at a drill press, wearing a velour shirt. "Where you from?" Doc asked.
“北卡罗来纳州，”我回答道。“但我父亲来自北岸的贝弗利。”
"North Carolina," I answered. "But my father's from Beverly up on the North Shore."
“所以你是一个叛逆者，”他说。“比利和我都是洋基队，我们在这里已经很久了。但我不会让你成为叛逆者。我在北卡罗来纳州有很多家人。我的一个孙子是希科里的注册会计师，另一个是教堂山的医生，另一个是罗利的律师。”
"So you're a rebel," he said. "Billy and I are both Yankees, we've been here so long. But I won't hold your being a rebel against you. I've got a lot of family in North Carolina. One of my grandchildren is a CPA in Hickory, another's a doctor in Chapel Hill, another's a lawyer in Raleigh."
“可惜他们都没有做出什么成绩。”我轻描淡写地说，但得到的却是冷冷的目光。“只是在开玩笑。”
"Too bad none of them are making anything of themselves," I said lightly but received a cold look in return. "Just kidding."
现在我们回到了频闪巷，墙上挂着一张照片，上面有一个东西，看起来像一个金属框架上慢慢融化的高尔夫球。
By now we were back at Strobe Alley, and on the wall there was a picture of something that looked like a slowly melting golfball on top of a metal frame.
“是我想的那样吗？” 我问医生。
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked Doc.
“是的，”他回答道。“那是一枚小型原子弹，他们试图在四十年代中期发挥作用。我们必须用旋转快门和磁偏振器来拍摄这颗原子弹。你知道，这些东西会发出大量的光。”
"Yep," he answered. "That's a small atom bomb they were trying to get to work back in the mid-forties. We had to take that one with a rotating shutter and a magnetic polarizer. Those things let out a lot of light, you know."
只是事实上。我回答说：“当我做论文文献调查时，我发现了一篇有趣的论文，题为“浮力羽流的快速上升”。这是一份 AEC 报告，写于 1945 年。我敢打赌他们在谈论同一件事。”
Just a matter of fact. I answered, "When I did my thesis literature survey I came across an interesting paper entitled 'The Rapid Rise of a Buoyant Plume.' It was an AEC report and was written in 1945. I bet they were talking about the same thing."
“听起来是这样，杜迪尼特？” 医生说。
"Sounds like it, dudinit?" Doc said.
我们再次进入Doc的实验室。比尔仍在将水装入侧扫声纳纸巾卷中。
We entered Doc's lab again. Bill was still loading water into the side-scan sonar paper towel rolls.
“那家伙说他把它带回来了，”医生说。“某个名叫麦克罗伯茨的人一定是忘了把它写下来。”
"The guy says he brought it back," Doc said. "Some guy named MacRoberts must have forgotten to write it down when he did."
“或者某个叫埃哲顿的人，”比尔反驳道。
"Or some guy named Edgerton," Bill retorted.
“好吧，让我们把这个家伙搞定吧，”医生指着我说道。“把他带出去，这样我们就可以完成一些工作。来吧，我们到另一个房间去看看我们能借给他什么。”
"Well, let's get this guy fixed up," Doc said, referring to me. "And get him out of here so we can get some work done. Come on, let's go into the other room and see what we can lend him."
我们穿过大厅，走进实验室的另一半。它看起来就像我在高中达罗莎夫人的物理课上看到的麻省理工学院的照片。每个工作台上都有频闪灯，著名的旋转轮上有不同的圆圈，随着频闪灯闪烁得越来越慢，旋转轮静止不动。过去五年里越来越多的电子盒子。
We crossed the hall and went into the other half of the lab. It looked like the pictures from MIT I'd seen in Mrs. DaRosa's physics class in high school. There were strobe lights on every workbench, the famous spinning wheel with different circles on it that stand still as the strobe light flashes faster and slower. More and more electronic boxes from the preceding five decades.
斯隆实验室给人一种过时的感觉。这个房间也是如此，但它是高科技的。也许斯隆实验室也是如此。沿着走廊旁边的墙壁，其中一个工作台上水平安装着一支 0.22 口径步枪。它后面有一块纸板，被喷漆成黑色，就像我在牢房里喷漆的一些东西一样。
The Sloan Lab felt archaic; so did this room, but it was hightech. Maybe the Sloan Lab was, too. Along the wall next to the corridor there was a .22 caliber rifle mounted horizontally on one of the workbenches. There was a piece of cardboard behind it, spray-painted black like some of the things I'd spray-painted in my cell.
“是这个吗？” 我问，知道医生会知道我提到了他的子弹系列照片：一颗子弹在剪断钻石后静止不动；子弹刚离开苹果；子弹穿过蜡烛时的冲击波。
"Is this it?" I asked, knowing Doc would know I referred to his bullet series of photographs: a bullet standing still after it shears the jack of diamonds; a bullet just after it leaves an apple; a bullet and its shock wave as it passes through a candle.
“是的，”他说。“通常我们使用 0.45 口径的手枪，但它发出的噪音太大了。前几天我们为一些高中生进行了演示，我们不想炸掉他们的耳朵。如果你往那边看，你会看到我们必须用什么东西来接住子弹。” 他指着一个看起来像高乐氏瓶子的东西。
"Yep," he said. "Usually we use a .45 caliber pistol, but it makes too much noise. The other day we did a demonstration for some high schoolers and we didn't want to blast their ears out. If you look over there you'll see we have to catch the bullet with something." He pointed to something that looked like a Clorox bottle.
“里面是什么？” 我问，以为它是类似防弹衣的材料。
"What's inside that?" I asked, thinking it'd be something like flak jacket material.
“哦，那只是我们在里维尔海滩捡到的一些沙子。它会消耗掉很多能量，”医生回答道。
"Oh, that's just some sand we picked up at Revere Beach. It kills a lot of energy," Doc replied.
比尔从长凳后面拉出两个黑色金属盒子。它们是严格模拟的，早于晶体管和数字计算机——它们让我想起了麻省理工学院战时沿着无限走廊进行国防研究的照片。两个盒子都贴有与实验室其他物品相同的 EG&G 小标签。我试着想象在一个每个物品上都印有我名字缩写的地方工作。比尔拿起本储藏柜里的另一个玻璃东西，看起来像是破损的试管，塑料线不够。
Bill pulled two of the black metal boxes off the back of the bench. They were strictly analog, predating the transistor and digital computers-they reminded me of pictures of MIT wartime defense research along the infinite corridor. Both of the boxes had the same little EG&G tags that everything else in the lab had. I tried to imagine working in a place where every object had my initials on it. Bill picked up another glass thing that looked like the broken test tube with not enough plastic wire that was in Ben's storage cabinet.
“我们要看看这个是否有效吗，博士？” 比尔问道。
"Shall we see whether this one works, Doc?" Bill asked.
“当然。插上它，”医生回答道。当比尔连接电线时，他向我解释了闪光灯的操作。“比利至少见过一次所有的故障，所以当它发生时，他知道该怎么做。他应该能够立即为你解决这个问题。看，你有两个电容器；一个 8,500 伏正极，一个 8,500 伏正极负电压，17,000 伏。如果你以错误的方式触摸它，它会给你一个很好的刺激。需要我多说吗？”
"Sure. Plug it in," Doc answered. He explained the operation of the flash to me while Bill connected the wires. "Billy's seen everything fail at least once, so he knows what to do about it when it happens. He should be able to fix up this thing for you in a jiffy. See, you got two capacitors; one 8,500 volts positive, one 8,500 volts negative, for 17,000 volts. That'll give you a nice kick if you touch it the wrong way. Need I say more?"
比尔连接完所有电线，按下“手动”按钮。突然，出现了一道白色的闪光，如此明亮，我想比尔和医生现在应该因为多次观看那道闪光而失明了。
Bill finished connecting all the wires and he pressed the "manual" button. And POP there was a white flash so bright that I thought Bill and Doc should be blind by now from looking at that flash so many times.
“这只是一微秒的一小部分，”多克说。“这里。看看这个，”他指着试管内的另一个小玻璃管说。“那个东西就是我们所说的毒刺。高压使电极之间的气体电离，然后电阻下降，火花跳跃。它就像火花塞，只是更强大。”
"That's a fraction of a microsecond," Doc said. "Here. Take a look at this," he said pointing to the other little glass tube inside the test tube. "That thing there's what we call the stinger. The high voltage ionizes the gas in between the electrodes here, and then the electrical resistance goes down and the spark jumps across. It's just like a spark plug, only more powerful."
管子发出咔嗒声，我问医生那是什么。
The tubes made a clicking noise and I asked Doc what it was.
“电晕放电，”他说。“在间隙上施加足够的电压，这些电子就会死亡并跳到低压侧。”
"Corona discharge," he said. "Put enough voltage across a gap and those electrons will just die to hop over to the low-voltage side."
也许当迪塞尔先生“显然掉进”英吉利海峡并且再也没有出现时，他想跳到低压侧。也许希尔班上的那个孩子也屈服于高强度的电压。我想把其中的一些内容写在纸上，但我把笔记本留在了牢房里。“你有一张纸可以让我做笔记吗？” 我问。
Maybe Herr Diesel wanted to hop over to the low-voltage side when he "apparently fell" into the English Channel and was never seen again. Maybe the kid in Hill's class succumbed to the intensity of the voltage as well. I wanted to put some of this on paper, but I'd left my notebook in my cell. "Do you have a sheet of paper I could take some notes on?" I asked.
“当然。这里。” 医生给了我一张废弃的宝丽来照片，其中一个角被撕掉了。
"Sure. Here." Doc gave me a wasted Polaroid print with one corner torn off it.
“我们已经得到了一切，比利？” 医生问道。
"We got everything, Billy?" Doc asked.
“当然可以，博士，”比尔·麦克罗伯茨回答。
"Sure do, Doc," Bill MacRoberts answered.
“好吧，趁我们在这里，让我们稍微清理一下这张长凳。我们得把这些二乘四的东西处理掉。这家伙看得出来我们都是在农场长大的。” 医生向我眨了眨眼，指的是他早年在内布拉斯加州的经历。
"Well, while we're here let's clean up this bench a little bit. We gotta get rid of these two-by-fours. This guy can tell we both grew up on the farm." Doc winked at me, referring to his early days in Nebraska.
他们收拾了一些东西，我们又穿过了频闪巷。“我们现在得给你装一个防护罩，这样闪光灯就不会直接射到相机上，你就只能看到这样的情况。比利，你能为这个家伙补一个吗？”
They put a few things away and we crossed Strobe Alley again. "We gotta fix you up with a shield now so the flash doesn't go straight to the camera and that's all you see. Billy, can you make one up for this fella?"
“当然可以，博士。” 比利切割了一块铝，将其在金属板弯曲机中滚压成形，然后它完美地贴合在试管上。
"Sure thing, Doc." Billy cut a piece of aluminum, rolled it to shape in a sheet metal bender, and it fit perfectly on the test tube.
“他还需要什么吗，比利？” 医生问道。
"He need anything else, Billy?" Doc asked.
“只是一个防止电涌回到触发器的电路，”比尔说。我想知道为什么他们称其为触发器，这与我牢房中示波器上的东西是一样的。
"Just a circuit to prevent the power surge from going back to the trigger," Bill said. I wondered why they called it a trigger, the same thing that was on the oscilloscope in my cell.
“你们两个不去另一个房间看看能不能找到。我现在得看邮件了。”
"Why don't the two of you go back to the other room and see whether you can find one. I gotta go through my mail now."
比尔和我又去了另一个储藏室。比尔快速计算出了闪光灯的瞬时功率输出：6 兆瓦，大约相当于 100,000 个灯泡的功率，但时间非常非常短。库仑、电荷、伏特和电势对比尔来说就像英寸和磅对我一样真实。我们找不到电路，所以比尔让我回去和医生交谈，而他继续寻找电路。
Bill and I went to the other storage room again. Bill did a quick calculation of the strobe's instantaneous power output: 6 megawatts, or about the equivalent power of 100,000 light bulbs, but for a very, very short time. Coulombs, electric charges, volts, and electric potential were as real to Bill as inches and pounds were to me. We couldn't find the circuit so Bill sent me back to talk to Doc while he continued to look for the circuit.
Doc仍在查看他的邮件。“从库斯塔那里得到了一些东西，”他说。“你知道，库斯塔第一次来到这里是在 1952 年。他还很年轻，没有人听说过他。那是在《国家地理》特别节目之前。哎呀，那几乎是在电视之前。无论如何，我告诉班上的每个学生当时我在教他们，如果他们不带十个朋友来参加库斯塔的演讲，那将会是……”然后医生用食指划过他的脖子。“这很有效。只有听讲座的时候才有站位，预订26-100的人甚至进不了门，因为太拥挤了。” 我很困惑，所以我偷看了那封信。它的签名者是雅克·库斯托。
Doc was still going through his mail. "Got something here from Koosta," he said. "You know, Koosta first came here in 1952. He was young and nobody'd ever heard of him. It was before the "National Geographic" specials. Heck, it was practically before TV. Anyway, I told every student in the class I was teaching then that if they didn't bring ten of their friends to the talk Koosta was giving it was going to be ..." and Doc drew his index finger across his neck. "It worked. It was standing room only for the lecture, and the guy who booked 26-100 for it couldn't even get in the door it was so crowded." I was confused so I peeked at the letter. It was signed by Jacques Cousteau.
“当然，库斯塔现在已经是个老人了，”多克说。
"Of course, Koosta's an old man now," Doc said.
“但是他失去了热情了吗？” 我问。
"But has he lost his enthusiasm?" I asked.
“没有。'
"Nope.'
“这才是最重要的，不是吗？” 我补充道。
"That's the important thing, isn't it?" I added.
“当然是。你读法语吗？” 医生问道。
"Sure is. You read French?" Doc asked.
“是的，我愿意，”我回答并开始阅读信中的文字。
"Yes, I do," I answered and started reading the text of the letter.
“看起来他们想让我为他们正在写的一本关于他们的船的航行的书填写这份调查问卷，”多克说。“这是什么问题？”
"It looks like they want me to fill out this questionnaire for some book they're doing about their ship's voyages," Doc said. "What's this question?"
“嗯，我想他们想知道你参加了这艘船的航行多少次。如果是一次或更少，他们就不希望你填写表格，”我翻译道。
"Um, I think they want to know how many times you went on the ship's voyages. If it's one or less they don't want you to fill out the form," I translated.
“你觉得八个人有资格吗？” 医生打趣道。“这个问题在这里怎么样？”
"Think eight'll qualify?" Doc quipped. "How about this question here?"
“他们想要你在船上拍摄的所有照片的副本。”
"They want copies of any photographs you may have taken while on board."
“我们有两千个。他们从这些中挑选出最好的，难道不会很开心吗？” 医生说。
"We've got two thousand. Wouldn't they have a fun time picking through those to find the best ones?" Doc said.
当我们谈论大海的话题时，我问他什么时候会打捞泰坦尼克号。
While we were on the subject of the sea I asked him when he would raise the Titanic.
“我们知道它在哪里，”他一边说，一边从钱包里掏出一张皱巴巴的纸。“北纬 41 度 16 分，西经 50 度 14 分。这是我从一本正在读的书中得知的。那是一个 50 英里 x 50 英里的区域。那只是地球上的一个点，但尝试在其中找到一艘船很多水。这并不容易。”
"We know where it is," he said as he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his wallet. "It's at 41 degrees 16 minutes north, 50 degrees 14 minutes west. I got that out of a book I was reading. That's an area 50 miles by 50 miles. That's just a point on the globe, but try finding a ship in that much water. It's not easy."
医生继续说道。“几年前我们在地中海海底发现了她的姊妹船，但那只是在 300 英尺深的水下。泰坦尼克号在 12,000 英尺的水下，而我的声纳只能工作到 3,000 英尺的深度。他转过身来，在水下画了画。他办公桌旁边的黑板。
Doc continued. "We found her sister ship on the bottom of the Mediterranean some years ago, but that was in only 300 feet of water. The Titanic's in 12,000 feet of water and my sonar only works to depths of 3,000. He turned around and drew on the blackboard beside his desk.
“所以你有很多电缆，而且它总是挂在船后面，形成直角三角形的斜边。这可不是一个简单的技巧，要在开阔的海洋中拖着 15,000 英尺的电缆在你身后，然后“把它卷起来，然后展开。如果你找到了它，那该怎么办呢？试图把它从底部抬起来，这简直是另一回事。”
"So you've got a lot of cable, and it's always going to be hanging behind the ship, making the hypotenuse of a right triangle. That's no easy trick, to have 15,000 feet of cable dragging behind you in the open ocean, then to coil it and uncoil it. And if you find it, then whadaya do? It's a whole 'nother can of worms to try and raise it from the bottom."
这个艰巨的、神话般的任务被简化为几何学，并且按照医生所说的方式似乎是可行的。
This Herculean, mythic task was reduced to geometry and seemed doable the way Doc talked about it.
比尔找到了电路并把它交给了医生。“我只能找到一个，博士，”他说。
Bill had found the circuit and brought it in to Doc. "I only could find one, Doc," he said.
“好吧，把它交给这里；我会给他画一张图。他是个成年人了；他可以自己建造电路，”医生厉声说道。
"Well, give it here; I'll make him a drawing. He's a grown man; he can build the circuit himself," Doc snapped.
医生在一分钟内画出了电路草图。我跑到大厅去复印了一些，回来后把原件给了他。
Doc sketched the circuit in a minute. I ran down the hall to make some copies, returned, and gave him the original.
比尔用一些小电线连接到电源盒的手柄上，将电源线绑起来。“这是我开发的一种专利方法，可以防止人们被电线绊倒，”他开玩笑说。
Bill tied the cords from the power supply box with some small wires attached to the box handle. "It's a patented method I've developed to prevent people from tripping over the cords," he joked.
当多克和比尔把设备装到我的手臂上时，多克发出了贷款条件。“我们不喜欢借钱给那些不成功的人，所以现在就努力工作，拍一些好照片，”他命令道。
As Doc and Bill loaded my arms with the equipment, Doc issued the conditions of the loan. "We don't like to lend to people who aren't successful, so work hard now and take some good pictures," he mandated.
“先生，我一周后会给你一些。”我回答道。
"I'll have some for you in a week, sir," I answered.
我转过街角来到 13 号楼，医生在他的办公室里再次劝诫我：“说到点子上！”
I turned the corner to Building 13 and Doc exhorted again from his office, "To the mark!"
5月25日
May 25
我设置了宝丽莱相机以及医生和比尔的闪光灯。切特走进来说：“你在做什么？我们只是在这里拍电影。你浪费时间做什么？”
I set up the Polaroid camera and Doc and Bill's flash. Chet walked in and said, "What are you doing? We're only taking movies here. What are you wasting your time for?"
“听着，切特，我只是想尝试一下。我想看看制作更快的电影，埃哲顿教授建议我试试这个。谁知道呢，我们可能会学到一些东西，”我回答道。
"Look, Chet, I just want to give this a try. I wanted to see about making faster movies and Professor Edgerton suggested I try this instead. Who knows, we might learn something," I answered.
自从我正确地决定不安装喷油器以来，我感觉更有信心了，更有能力与切特顶嘴了。
I felt a little more confident, a little more able to talk back to Chet since the time I was right about not mounting the fuel injector.
“好吧，好吧，但不要花超过一天的时间。你必须制作燃烧的电影，获取压力数据并进行分析。我们必须带你离开这里，进入现实世界，”他说。
"Well, all right, but don't spend more than a day on it. You gotta make movies of combustion and take the pressure data and analyze it. We gotta get you outa here and into the real world," he said.
听着，切特，我知道你不认为我是博士。口径，但让我在这段时间内享受偶尔跟随我的直觉。
Look, Chet, I know you don't think I'm Ph.D. caliber, but let me enjoy following my intuition once in a while for the duration.
“您需要任何帮助？” 他问。
"You need any help?" he asked.
“关键是时机。我需要在注射持续的千分之一秒内发生闪光开启的百万分之一秒，”我说。
"The key is the timing. I need the fraction of the millionth of a second that the flash is on to occur within the thousandth of the second that the injection lasts," I said.
“剩下的实验就用我们现有的计时盒吧，”切特说。“将闪光灯放在一个定时盒上，将注射器放在另一个定时盒上，然后像使用电影摄影机一样调节延迟。”
"Just use the timing boxes we have for the rest of the experiment," Chet said. "Put the strobe flash on one timing box and put the injector on the other timing box, and dial in the delay just as you did with the movie camera."
机械工程的高科技存在于精确的空间中。电气工程的高科技体现在精确的时间上。问题仍然存在，我们应该在喷射器启动和闪光灯启动之间延迟千分之几秒？从正时盒告诉它启动开始，喷油器大约需要 42/1,000 秒的时间进行喷油，所以我向 Chet 建议了这个数字。
The high technology of mechanical engineering is in precise space. The high technology of electrical engineering is in precise time. The question remained, How many thousandths of a second delay should we put between when the injector starts and when the flash starts? The injector took about 42/1,000 of a second to inject from the time the timing box told it to start, so I suggested that number to Chet.
“不，”他说，有点武断。“我们从40开始吧。”
"No," he said, kind of arbitrarily. "Let's start with 40."
我们拨了40。宝丽来胶片上没有燃油喷射。
We dialed in 40. No fuel spray on the Polaroid film.
“现在试试 45，”切特说。
"Now try 45," Chet said.
仍然没有燃油喷射。
Still no fuel spray.
“四十三。” 没有燃料。“四十一。” 没有燃料。“四十四。” 没有燃料。
"Forty-three." No fuel. "Forty-one." No fuel. "Forty-four." No fuel.
“四十二。” 宝丽来照片上清晰地显示出燃料的清晰图像。五架喷气机中的每一架看起来都像一簇蓬松的白色棉花。很美，比电影还清楚。医生是对的。
"Forty-two." A crisp sharp image of the fuel displayed itself on the Polaroid print. Each of the five jets looked like a tiny tuft of fluffy white cotton. It was beautiful, clearer than the movie. Doc was right.
章节
C H A P T E R
17 号
17
六人的欢乐
The Joy of Six
11.. 。分别善恶树上的果子，你不可吃。。。...
11. . . of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. . . ...
创世记 2:17
Genesis 2:17
日程：
Schedule:
Summer '83：6.001 计算机的结构和解释
Summer '83: 6.001 Structure and Interpretation of Computer
语言（西伯特）
Languages (Siebert)
6.931 基础电子学（Zapf）
6.931 Basic Electronics (Zapf)
2.996 论文
2.996 Thesis
5月27日
May 27
我和阿里去毕业典礼上听赫尔穆特·施密特的演讲。对于游行队伍中的教授来说，这是一个阴天，他们穿着斯坦福大学、牛津大学、剑桥大学和麻省理工学院的学术长袍和兜帽，戴着权杖和滑稽的帽子。一切都显得如此中世纪，仿佛巫师们正在展示他们的力量。
Ari and I went to graduation to hear the speech by Helmut Schmidt. It was a cloudy day for the professors in the procession with their academic robes and their hoods from Stanford and Oxford and Cambridge and MIT, and their scepters and their funny hats. It all seemed so medieval, as if the wizards were displaying their power.
施密特从我身边走过，四个戴着普通黑色帽子、穿着长袍的年轻人走在他的四边。四个年轻的看起来不像学者，倒像是个学者。他们的眼睛里没有焦点和智慧。他们没有像那些戴着滑稽帽子的人那样向前看，而是抬头看着屋顶，看着基利安法院周围的二楼、三楼和四楼的窗户。施密特也扫视了周边。
Schmidt marched past me, with four younger men in plain black caps and gowns marching on all four sides of him. The four younger ones didn't look like scholars; there wasn't the focus and intelligence in their eyes. And instead of looking forward like the people in funnier hats, they looked up at the rooftops, at the second, third, and fourth floor windows around Killian Court. Schmidt scanned the periphery as well.
五人神色紧张。我想知道如果有试图击中的情况，他们是否会在心里回顾编排：施密特会先击中甲板，然后两个人会跳到他身上掩护他，另外两个人会从长袍下拿出乌兹冲锋枪并打开向潜在的刺客开火。当然，安全扫描已经对该地区进行了消毒，保镖只是一个多余的系统。
The five looked tense. I wondered whether they were mentally reviewing the choreography if there were an attempted hit: Schmidt would hit the deck first, then two would jump on top of him to cover him, and the other two would whip out their Uzis from under their robes and open fire on the would-be assasin. Surely the security sweep had sterilized the area, though, and the bodyguards were only a redundant system.
他们平安地登上了舞台。观众席上几位年长的父母轻声唱起了《星条旗永不落》，我则大声唱起这首歌，就像我在《童子军》中学习歌词后那样。当国歌结束时，我前面一排的一个人说：“打球。”
They reached the stage without incident. A few of the older parents in the audience softly sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and I sang it loudly the way I had ever since I'd learned the words in Cub Scouts. When the anthem ended, a guy in the row in front of me said, "Play ball."
施密特演讲进行到一半时，台后传来了声音。“咔嚓，咚咚。” 卷轴从 10 号楼爱奥尼亚柱之间的饰带上掉下来。“什么都没有。”
Midway through Schmidt's speech, the sounds came from behind the stage. "Click, thunk." The scroll fell from the frieze between the Ionic columns of Building 10. "NOTHING'S."
“咔嚓，咚咚。” “不可能的。”
"Click, thunk." "IMPOSSIBLE."
THA 得一分。干得好，甘。
Score one for THA. Nice work, Ghan.
第六门课程是电气工程系。这就是力量所在。保罗·格雷（Paul Gray，54 年）是校长，他的职业生涯始于六年级的教授。工程学院院长格里·威尔逊（Gerry Wilson）是第六学院的教授。当然，埃哲顿医生也在第六课。课程六发明了雷达、人工智能和计算机。第六门课程是高科技。
Course Six is the Electrical Engineering department. This is where the power is. Paul Gray ('54), president, got his start as a professor in Six. Gerry Wilson, dean of engineering, was a professor in Six. And, of course, Doc Edgerton was in Course Six. Course Six invented radar, artificial intelligence, and computers. Course Six is high technology.
7月20日
July 20
软件。新生双E需要六个双哦一（又名六双无乐趣）来学习LISP（列表处理，或许多阴险和愚蠢的括号）编程。这也是他们解决问题和让事情顺利进行的能力开始将世界其他地方抛在身后的地方。
Software. Freshman double E's take six double oh one (a.k.a. six double no fun) to learn to program in LISP (LISt Processing, or Lots of Insidious and Stupid Parentheses). This is also where they begin to leave the rest of the world behind them in their ability to solve problems and to make things work.
我在高级之家的牛奶和饼干店听说过很多关于“六”的事，所以我想体验一下，哪怕只是间接体验一下。在麻省理工学院，任何不评分的内容都是替代性的，因为你需要其他学生、测验和评分问题集的压力来迫使你吸收所提供的大量数据。两周的夏季版本会给我足够大的替代品味。
I'd heard so much about Six at milk and cookies in Senior House that I wanted to experience it, if only vicariously. Anything that is not graded is vicarious at MIT, because you need the pressure of the other students and the quizzes and the graded problem sets to force you to absorb the mountain of data presented. The two week summer version would give me a big enough vicarious taste.
课程六的地下指南指出：“6.001 不是一门编程课程——它教你如何思考复杂性。” 也许这能兑现米基奇教授两年前第一周对我的承诺。
The underground guide to Course Six noted: "6.001 is not a programming course-it teaches you how to think about complexity." Perhaps it would fulfill Professor Mikic's promise to me in that first week two years ago.
西伯特教授比吉夫托普洛斯和格林年轻一点。他说话很有力，看起来更像是财富 500 强企业的高管，而不是计算机科学教授。但他的态度并不妨碍他传输数据的能力。
Professor Siebert was a little younger than Gyftopoulos and Greene; he spoke forcefully, and seemed more like a Fortune 500 executive than a computer science professor. But his manner didn't hinder his ability to transfer the data.
“抽象，”他说。“就是这个词。当你开始设计计算机程序或设计任何相关的东西时，你需要进行抽象。”
"Abstraction," he said. "That is the word. When you go about designing a computer program, or designing anything for that matter, you need to make abstractions."
正确的。什么是抽象？我以为我在这个地方正在取得进步。
Right. What's an abstraction? And I thought I was making progress in this place.
西伯特接着说，我们可能已经熟悉黑匣子这个词了。您向其发出一个或多个电子信号的物体被称为黑匣子。信号可以像汽车电池的电压一样简单，也可以像无线电波一样复杂。黑匣子对这些输入信号进行操作，为您提供输出信号。之所以称为黑匣子，是因为你不知道黑匣子如何执行操作，但你确实知道操作是什么。黑盒概念是在模拟电子学的早期发展起来的，当时它们在许多情况下实际上是黑色金属盒。
Siebert went on to say that we might already be familiar with the term black box. A thing to which you give an electronic signal or signals is referred to as as a black box. A signal can be as simple as the voltage from a car battery or as complex as a radio wave. The black box operates on these input signals to give you an output signal. It's called a black box because you don't know how the black box performs the operation, but you do know what the operation is. The black box concept was developed in the early days of analog electronics, when they were, in many cases, literally black metal boxes.
就像埃杰顿博士实验室里的那些一样。我不必确切知道 EG&G 频闪盒内的电容器和其他电子元件如何工作；我只需要知道这些盒子的作用以及如何将它们与我的实验连接起来。
Like those in Doc Edgerton's lab. I didn't have to know precisely how the capacitors and other electronic component devices inside the EG&G strobe boxes worked; I only needed to know what the boxes did and how to interface them with my experiment.
抽象就是这个词。源自abstractus，“拖走。” 抽象是将事物视为一般特征，而不是具体现实、特定对象或实际实例的行为。在6.001的语言中，抽象也是一般特征本身、函数或操作。
Abstraction is the word. From abstractus, "To drag away from." Abstraction is the act of considering something as a general characteristic, apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances. In the language of 6.001, an abstraction is also the general characteristic itself, the function or the operation.
所以抽象就是进行抽象、制作黑匣子的过程。您可以通过抽象将一个繁重、复杂、棘手的问题或系统划分为更小、更容易处理的部分。
So abstraction is the process of making abstractions, making black boxes. You divide a heavy, complex intractable problem or system into smaller, tractable pieces by abstraction.
一旦您将较小的部分从较大的整体中拖出来，并找到了抽象的一般特征或输出和输入之间的关系，您就可以链接这些抽象以获得更复杂的抽象。
Once you've dragged the smaller pieces away from the larger whole, and found the general characteristics, or the relationship between output and input for the abstraction, you can link the abstractions to attain a more complex abstraction.
是的，但是熵呢？
Yes, but what about entropy?
“对于每一个抽象，你都需要定义一个‘抽象障碍’，即抽象的限制，”他继续说道。
"With every abstraction, you need to define an 'abstraction barrier,' i.e., the limits of the abstraction," he continued.
汽车可以被认为是一个抽象概念。它具有土木工程师和公路规划人员需要处理的重量、排放量以及长度和宽度。但汽车本身是抽象概念的集合。您可以将引擎称为抽象。变速器是一个抽象概念，轮胎也是一个抽象概念。每个抽象都具有可由工程组建模的性能特征。
An automobile can be thought of as an abstraction. It has a weight and emissions and a length and a width that civil engineers and highway planners deal with. But the car itself is a collection of abstractions. You could call the engine an abstraction. The transmission is an abstraction, and the tires are abstractions. Each abstraction has performance characteristics that can be modeled by an engineering group.
模型。关键词。所以抽象就像一个模型。系统的模型可能由较小系统或子系统的链接模型组成。
Model. Key word. So an abstraction is like a model. And a model of a system may be composed of linked models of smaller systems, or subsystems.
“现在在设计中，”西伯特教授说，“任务是定义抽象和抽象障碍。”
"Now in design," Professor Siebert said, "the task will be to define the abstractions and the abstraction barriers."
您还需要在抽象障碍之间有干净的接口；这将使多个人能够在一个大型、复杂的系统上高效地工作。这是古老的分而治之的方法。任何技术都由相互关联的抽象组成，其想法是以可管理的方式划分抽象。
You will also need to have clean interfaces between the abstraction barriers; this will enable more than one person to work productively on a large, complex system. It's the old divide-andconquer approach. Any technology consists of linked abstractions, and the idea is to divide the abstractions in a manageable way.
这就是切特、斯科特和我对 RCM 所做的事情。我拿起了前半部分、燃油系统、透明窗口设计、喷嘴设计和电影摄影机，而切特和斯科特则拿起了机器的后半部分及其所有附属子系统。因此，我可以在机器的前半部分进行发明和修补，感觉就像以前的发明家一样，而斯科特和切特在机器的后半部分也做了同样的事情。一旦我们的两个系统开始工作，我们就会用我无知地组装的计时电子设备来设计整个实验过程。
This is what Chet and Scott and I had done with the RCM. I'd picked up the front half, the fuel system, the clear window design, the nozzle design, and the movie camera, while Chet and Scott had taken the rear half of the machine and all its attendant subsystems. Thus I could invent and tinker in the front half and feel like the old-time inventors, while Scott and Chet did the same in the rear half of the machine. Once our two systems worked, we would choreograph the whole process of the experiment with the timing electronics I had ignorantly assembled.
这种级别的细分有其局限性。它进入了现实世界，在现实世界中，工程师和科学家只允许他们知道产生指定的抽象所需的细胞信息，从而产生分歧和征服。当他们攀登公司树的树枝时，他们了解越来越多的信息和更广阔的视野。他们发现，一旦他们知道如何完成所有部分，整个事情就变得相当容易，如果他们签署的不竞争协议不够严格，他们就会与其他一些抽象概念一起组建一家分拆公司。正如约翰·德罗林所做的那样。
This level of subdivision has its limits. It works its way into the real world, where engineers and scientists are divided and conquered by allowing them only to know the cellular information they need to produce their assigned abstraction. As they climb the branches of the corporate tree, they are privy to more and more information, a broader view. They see that the whole thing is pretty easy once they know how to do all its parts, and if the noncompetition agreement they sign is not tight enough they form a spinoff company with some of the other abstractions. As John Delorean did.
它更进一步。在汽车装配厂里盲目地转动螺栓是一个抽象的概念，很容易教给机器人。机器人永远不会吸食可卡因。
It goes further. Turning a bolt mindlessly at a car assembly plant is an abstraction, easy enough to teach a robot. And a robot will never snort cocaine.
更多西伯特讲座。“我们鼓励你一厢情愿地思考。”
More Siebert lecture. "We encourage you to think wishfully."
当您解决问题时，一厢情愿的想法将帮助您定义适当的子问题。一厢情愿的想法只是说：“如果我有一个东西可以做这样那样的事情，那该多好。” 一旦你知道自己想要什么，就很容易得到它。一旦你命名了一个灵魂，你就拥有了控制它的力量。你只是不断地一遍又一遍地说这个问题，寻找答案，将问题分解成越来越小的部分。最终，你会到达可以真正解决其中一两个问题，或者你的一名下属可以解决的地步。大型系统的诀窍在于对其进行编排或编排，以便所有问题或多或少在正确的时间得到解决，并且人们不会坐等其他抽象为他们提供执行下一步操作所需的信息。需要做。这就是我们所说的自顶向下编程。通过不让自己迷失在细节中直到稍后，你可以使拖延成为解决问题过程中富有成效的一部分。
When you're solving a problem, wishful thinking will help you define the appropriate subproblems. Wishful thinking is simply saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if I had a thing that did such and such a thing." Once you know what you want, it's easy enough to get it. Once you name a spirit, you have power over it. You just keep saying that question over and over again, looking for the answer, breaking the problem down into smaller and smaller pieces. Eventually you get to the point where you can actually solve one or two of the pieces, or one of your subordinates can. The trick with large systems is to choreograph or orchestrate it so that all the problems are solved at more or less the right time and people aren't sitting around waiting for some other abstraction to give them the information they need to do the next thing they need to do. This is what we mean by top-down programming. You make procrastination a productive part of the problem-solving process by not losing yourself in the fine details until later.
我记得比利时的自行车博物馆，那里展示了技术发展的创新。“Ainsi naquit la bikette”：“自行车就这样诞生了，”十八世纪第一个例子上的标签上写着。图中戴高帽的男子跨坐在钢制两轮车上。没有踏板，没有刹车，没有轮胎。实际上，它是一种跑步辅助工具。于是它回答了一个如意的问题：如果我跑步的时候，不受腿长的限制，而是能每隔一段时间给地球推一推，与长腿的人平等竞争，那该多好？
I remembered the bicycle museum in Belgium, where the technology development was displayed innovation by innovation. "Ainsi naquit la bicyclette": "Thus was born the bicycle," the label on the first example from the eighteenth century said. The men in top hats straddled steel two-wheelers in the diagram. There were no pedals, no brakes, no tires. In effect it was a running aid. So it answered the wishful question, Wouldn't it be nice if, when I ran, I weren't limited by the length of my legs, but rather could give the earth a push at regular intervals and compete with longerlegged people equally?
第二个系列有轮胎，这肯定回答了一个如意的问题：如果我的推车不那么疼，那不是很好吗？接下来是便士法新，它回答了这个问题：当我可以像所有大型机械机器一样转动轮子时，将其推离地面不是很愚蠢吗？接着是两轮的现代“安全自行车”，它回答了这个问题：如果我每次从便士上摔下来时不必把头撞破，那不是很好吗？
The second series had tires, which must have answered the wishful question, Wouldn't it be nice if my push-bike didn't hurt so much? followed by the penny farthing, which answered the question, Isn't it sort of stupid to be pushing off the ground when I can crank a wheel like all the big mechanical machines do?, followed by the two-wheeled, modern-day "safety bicycle," which answered the question, Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to crack my head open every time I fell off my penny farthing?
更多西伯特讲座。“现在，在 LISP 中，就像在任何语言中一样，我们处理原语、组合方式和抽象方式，以及习语或常见的使用模式。”
More Siebert lecture. "Now, in LISP, as in any language, we deal with primitives, means of combination, and means of abstraction, and also with idioms, or common patterns of usage."
LISP 是一种速度很慢的语言，但是一旦你了解了它，就很容易阅读和理解程序，因为程序员的时间是昂贵的部分，而打开和关闭芯片中的逻辑门所需的电力相对便宜。
LISP is a slow language, but once you know it, it's very easy to read and understand a program because the programmer's time is the expensive part and the electricity needed to fire the logic gates open and closed in the chips is relatively cheap.
“大型系统的关键是通信，”西伯特说。
"The key with large systems is communication," Siebert said.
您现在希望与小组中的其他成员快速有效地沟通，这样您就不会浪费时间向其他人解释混乱的逻辑。此外，稍后，其他人可能就是你——周末之后，当你回到问题时——如果你的代码不清楚，你就会原地踏步，试图回到周五的位置。
You want to communicate with other members of your group now quickly and efficiently so you don't waste time explaining messy logic to someone else. Besides, the someone else may be you later on-after the weekend when you come back to the problem-and if your code isn't clear you'll spin your wheels trying just to get back to where you were on Friday.
“但我们可以聊一整天，”他说。“计算机实验室里的机器是为了让你变得更聪明。”
"But we could talk all day," he said. "The machines in the computer lab are here to smarten you up."
问题集可以帮助您掌握，而坐在机器前尝试将您的思想集中在所提出的概念上是您掌握掌握的最佳方法。当你在机器面前时，机器就是你的老师，你的字典；机器就是你的同义词库；这台机器是 EB White 的《风格元素》的版本。为什么？因为任何错误的语法、错误的拼写或错误的用法根本不起作用，你必须一次又一次地尝试，直到它起作用为止。Siebert说，如果我们真的遇到困难，实验室里会有一些导师来帮助我们。他们坐在教室的后面。
The problem sets help you achieve mastery, and sitting at the machines trying to wrap your mind around the concepts presented is the best thing you can do to attain mastery. When you are at the machine, the machine is your teacher, your dictionary; the machine is your thesaurus; the machine is your version of E. B. White's The Elements of Style. Why? Because anything that is bad grammar or bad spelling or bad usage simply does not work, and you have to try again and again until it does work. Siebert said that there would be some tutors in the lab to help us if we really get stuck. They were sitting at the back of the classroom.
在实验室里。这些计算机是花栗鼠，由 Bill Hewlett ('36)-Packard 捐赠给麻省理工学院。这些东西有点像巨型个人电脑，如果商用的话，每台价值 50,000 美元。但是，当然，这些成本毫无意义，因为它们每几年就会下降 2 倍。他们都在 EG&G 34 号楼的一个大房间里排成一排。我不知道他们为什么称他们为“花栗鼠”，除非这是对机器用户、芯片僧侣的攻击。他们中没有人叫阿尔文，所以不是这样的。
In the lab. The computers were Chipmunks, donated to MIT by Bill Hewlett ('36)-Packard. These things were sort of megapersonal computers, each worth $50,000 if it were commercially available. But, of course, these costs mean nothing because they are coming down by a factor of 2 every couple of years. They were all lined up in a big room in the EG&G building, Building 34. I don't know why they called them Chipmunks, unless it was a jab at the users of the machines, the chip monks. None of them was named Alvin, so that wasn't it.
有五十台机器，但其中没有多少机器被占用，所以我坐下来试图弄清楚如何登录。这比格林机房里的苹果电脑要棘手一些，因为（1）没有软盘可以进入，（2）机器已经开机了。屏幕上什么也没有，甚至连一个闪烁的矩形光标也没有。
There were fifty machines and not a lot of them were occupied so I sat down and tried to figure out how to log on. It was a little trickier than the Apple in Greene's computer room, because (1) there was no floppy disk to enter, and (2) the machine was already on. There was nothing on the screen, not even a little flashing rectangular cursor.
我翻阅了机器指南，寻找“按任意键启动”或“输入‘ENTER’启动”的说明。到处都没有任何线索。黑板上没有写。这是如此明显、如此常识、如此愚蠢的概念，每个人都应该直观地知道如何开始。
I thumbed through the guide to the machine, looking for an instruction that said, "Press any key to start" or "Type 'ENTER' to start." There were no clues anywhere. It wasn't written on the blackboard. It is so obvious, such common knowledge, such an idiotproof concept that everyone should know intuitively how to start.
经过半个小时的阅读和重读手册并翻阅笔记后，我询问了十九岁的助教。是的，向一个满口胡言乱语的大二学生寻求帮助是一种耻辱，但年龄与能力无关。
After half an hour of reading and rereading the manual and looking through my notes, I asked the nineteen-year-old teaching assistant. Yes, it is humiliating to ask a mealymouthed sophomore for help, but age has nothing to do with ability.
“按空格键，”他回答道。
"Hit the space bar," he answered.
发誓。我应该知道这一点。当天的问题是，定义一个过程（LISP 表示“编写程序”），该过程采用三 (3) 个数字作为参数，并返回两 (2) 个较大数字的平方和。问题出现在笔记的第一章中，因此从定义上来说很简单。不，不是。
Golly. I should have known that. The problem of the day was, Define a procedure (LISP for "write a program") that takes three (3) numbers as arguments and returns the sum of squares of the two (2) larger numbers. The problem was in the first chapter of the notes so it was by definition easy. No, it wasn't.
如何进行？我盯着黑白屏幕上那个闪烁着烦人的小条形光标，仿佛在说：“来吧，慢吞吞的，你让我厌烦了。”
How to proceed? I stared at the little bar cursor on the black and white screen that flashed annoyingly, as if to say, "Come on, slowpoke, you're boring me."
是时候做一厢情愿的事情了。但首先，翻译问题陈述中的关键词。这就是人工智能实验室的人们在向 LISP 机器提供高中代数教科书中的“文字问题”时所做的事情（例如，“约翰的年龄是他父亲的四分之一。十年后约翰将是三分之一”他父亲的年龄。当约翰只有他父亲的一半时，他多大了？”）。
Time for wishful thinking. But first, translate key words in the problem statement. This is what the people in the artificial intelligence lab make their LISP machines do when they feed them "word problems" from high school algebra textbooks (e.g., "John is one-fourth as old as his father. In ten years John will be onethird the age of his father. How old will John be when he's half as old as his father?").
关键词是论证和返回。参数是其他计算机编程课程所称的输入，例如 cos (x) 中的 x。回报就是世界其他地方所说的“输出”。但这是麻省理工学院，我们这里有自己的条款，而且我们的条款比其他任何人的都好。
The key words are argument and return. An argument is what other computer programming classes would call an input-for example, x in cos (x). Return is what the rest of the world would call "output." But this is MIT and we have our own terms here, and our terms are better than anyone else's.
所以问题陈述的意思是（1）取任意三个数字；(2) 找出哪两个较大；(3) 将每个较大的数与其自身相乘；(4)将(3)的结果相加。
So the problem statement means (1) take any three numbers; (2) figure out which are the two bigger ones; (3) multiply each of the bigger ones by itself; (4) add together the results of (3).
现在是实现如意算盘的时候了。如果我有一个神奇的盒子，可以计算出任意三个数字中较大的两个，那不是很好吗？如果我有另一个神奇的盒子，它可以计算我放入其中的任意两个数字的平方和，那不是很好吗？这不是很好吗？也许那时……我记不起海滩男孩歌曲的其余歌词了。
Now it's time for wishful thinking. Wouldn't it be nice if I had a magic box that figured out the larger two of any three numbers? Wouldn't it be nice if I had another magic box that would make the sum of the squares of whatever two numbers I put into it? Wouldn't it be nice? Maybe then ... I couldn't remember the rest of the words to the Beach Boys' song.
我知道我不知道什么，如果你明白我的意思的话。如果你确切地知道你不知道什么，你可以画一个盒子并将其称为一个过程并发明它的细节。西伯特强调的想法是易读性，以及现在与我的同事以及以后与我自己的沟通。它们允许您根据需要为框命名，因此我将其中一个框称为“Makesum-of squares”。我将另一个盒子称为“查找更大的三中之二”。我叫出灵魂的名字并拥有控制它们的力量。
I knew what I didn't know, if you know what I mean. If you precisely know what you don't know you can draw a box and call that a procedure and invent the details of it. The idea that Siebert stressed was legibility, communication to my colleagues now and myself later. They allow you to make the names of the boxes as long as you want, so I called one of the boxes "Makesum-of-squares." I called the other box "Find-bigger-two-ofthree." I called the spirits by name and had power over them.
我在高中时就学过函数，例如 cos(x)、“x 的余弦”，而 LISP 使我能够发明具有多个参数的函数。很棒的概念，伙计。强大的。优雅的。聪明的。这些话在花栗鼠的房间里流传。我在苹果上所做的事情很酷，它是迭代的，但与这种语言相比，它真的很笨拙——如果我能流利地使用它的话。好像这还不够棒，LISP 使您能够无限地创建函数的函数的函数的函数。它几乎把高等数学带到了地球上。
I'd learned functions in high school, such as cos(x), "cosine of x," and LISP empowered me to invent functions with more than one argument. Awesome concept, dude. Powerful. Elegant. Clever. These are words that floated around the Chipmunk room. What I'd done on the Apple was cool, it was iterative, but it was really clumsy compared to this language-if I could ever become fluent in it. And as if that weren't awesome enough, LISP enables you to make functions of functions of functions of functions ad infin- itum. It almost brought higher mathematics to earth.
我的工作，给这些灵魂命名，就是驯服它们，让它们屈服，抓住它们的大腿窝，就像天使对雅各所做的那样。
My job, having named the spirits, was to tame them, to bring them into submission, to grab them by the hollow of the thigh as the angel did to Jacob.
驯服它们与发明它们或对它们进行编程是一样的。现在是时候移动光标了。
To tame them is the same as inventing them, or programming them. So time to move the cursor.
定义查找更大的三分之二 (ABC)
DEFINE FIND-BIGGER-TWO-OF-THREE (A B C)
a、b、c 是程序可以作为输入的任意数字的符号。我翻遍了笔记、手册、前一年解决的问题，试图捕捉如何编写解决方案的模式。
a, b, c, were symbols for the arbitrary numbers the program could take as input. I fished through the notes, through the manuals, through the solved problems from the year before to try to capture the pattern of how to write a solution.
方法是找到一个你有答案的类似问题，并尝试模仿它，尝试稍微改变它，也许运气好就能找到答案。如果答案就像书中的答案，你可能会欺骗自己，认为你正在学习一些东西。然而，这现在和过去都是次优的（课程六显然没有听过威尔逊教授对次优化的定义，即重新布置泰坦尼克号上的躺椅；他们对次优的定义是“次优”），次优是因为当你模仿时你学到的唯一东西表面模式以及如何改变它们就是它们的样子，以及如何从问题集或测试的评分器中窃取一些部分学分。
The approach is to find a similar problem for which you have the answer and try to mimic it, try to change it a little bit, and maybe luck out and reach an answer. If the answer is like the one in the book you can fool yourself into thinking you're learning something. However, this is and was suboptimal (Course Six evidently had not heard Professor Wilson's definition of suboptimization as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic; their definition of suboptimal was "less than optimal"), suboptimal because the only thing you learn when you mimic surface patterns and how to change them is what they look like and how to sleaze some partial credit points out of the grader of the problem set or the test.
但真正学习、内化知识的唯一方法是集中注意力，集中精力，将问题分解成最简单的部分，然后从问题的各个部分中构建解决方案。集中注意力很难，但如果你能做到这一点，剩下的就很容易了。就好像答案是核桃，你有一把核桃镐，你正试图把核桃从壳里拔出来。您可以刮擦表面，一点一点地从坚果顶部拉下小碎片，然后将外壳的其他小碎片与它混合，或者您可以在坚果的边缘周围工作，寻找松开它的地方整个从壳中取出，就像一个熟透的水果。也许这就是乔姆斯基教授所说的“表面”结构和“深层”结构。
But the only way really to learn, to internalize the knowledge, is to concentrate, to focus, and to break the problem down into its simplest pieces and then build the solution up out of the problem's pieces. It's hard to focus, but if you can do that, the rest is easy. It's like the answer is a walnut and you have a walnut pick and you're trying to pull the walnut out of the shell. You can either scratch at the surface and pull little pieces off the top of the nut, bit by bit, and mix other little pieces of the shell with it, or you can work around the edge of the nut, looking for places to loosen it whole from the shell like an overripe fruit. Maybe this is what Professor Noam Chomsky meant by "surface" structure and "deep" structure.
我再次向那个嘴巴张得大大咧咧的大二学生求助。
I asked the mealymouthed sophomore for help again.
“我正在尝试定义这个过程，通过使用‘大于’符号返回较大的两个数字，”我说。
"I'm trying to define this procedure that will return the bigger two numbers by using 'greater than' signs," I said.
“机器不会返回这样的两个数字，”他连珠炮般地说。“嗯，实际上可以，但我们不会告诉你怎么做。这只会让你感到困惑。你为什么不尝试使用过程‘min’或‘max’呢？它们在第三章中。”
"The machine won't return two numbers like that," he said rapid-fire. "Well, actually it can, but we won't be telling you how. It would only confuse you. Why don't you try using the procedures 'min' or 'max'? They're in chapter three."
在那里，我遵循了那种狭隘的、有限的、连续的看待事物的方式，并错误地认为既然问题在第一章中，那么我需要解决它的所有材料也将在第一章中。麻省理工学院则不然。这是他们欺骗你提前阅读的方式。
There I'd gone along with that narrow, limited, sequential way of looking at things and wrongly assumed that since the problem was in chapter one, all the material I would need to solve it would also be in chapter one. Not so at MIT. This is their way of tricking you into reading ahead.
所以我应用了“max”一次，然后将“max”应用到剩余的两个数字，将两个结果的数字平方并将它们加在一起。
And so I applied "max" once, then applied "max" to the remaining two numbers, squared the two resulting numbers and added them together.
尽管如此，还是进行了多次尝试，花栗鼠手册中的一段话被典型地低估了：
It took several tries, though, and a paragraph in the Chipmunk manual was characteristically understated:
“调试：在程序的进化过程中，你会多次发现该程序并不完全正确。不要将这些错误归咎于程序，而是将责任归咎于称为错误的奇怪生物（早在晶体管出现之前，当计算机非常庞大时，当“管子”放大了信号，问题是由电线中真正的错误引起的。通过这种方式，程序员就不会感到内疚。调试，就像编程一样，是一种后天获得的技能和一门艺术。”
"Debugging: It will become apparent to you many times during a program's evolution that the program is not entirely right. Instead of blaming the program for these faults, strange creatures called bugs are blamed (back before the transistor, when computers were huge, when 'tubes' amplified signals, problems were caused by real bugs caught in the wires). In this way the programmer remains free of guilt. Debugging, like programming, is an acquired skill and an art."
一旦你知道如何去做，一切都会变得很容易。
Everything's easy once you know how to do it.
7月21日
July 21
Siebert：“今天的口头禅是‘递归’。”
Siebert: "The mantra for today is 'recursion.' "
考虑递归的方法是，你有一组在东欧制作的玩偶，其中一个玩偶看起来与另一个玩偶相似，但较小且适合放入其中。现在假设最里面的娃娃上有你想要的东西。进一步假设每个娃娃都有一把钥匙可以打开下一层，再假设你的老板对你说，你不仅想要最里面的娃娃上的东西，而且还希望之后的娃娃都一样。你完成了。所以你用你的钥匙打开一号娃娃，用一号娃娃的钥匙打开二号娃娃，然后用二号娃娃的钥匙打开三号娃娃，依此类推，直到你到达最里面的娃娃。然后，您按照原来的方式返回，直到获得结果并再次获得完整组装的娃娃套装。递归的美妙之处在于，您可以将问题视为具有相似性质的嵌套子问题，从而构建计算机对问题的解决方案。
The way to think of recursion is that you have a set of dolls that they make in Eastern Europe, where one doll looks like the other one but is smaller and fits inside it. Now suppose there's something on the innermost doll that you want. Suppose further that each doll has a key to open up the next inner layer, and suppose further that your boss said to you, not only do you want the thing that's on the innermost doll, but also you want the dolls to be the same after you're done. So you use your key to open up doll number one, use doll number one's key to open up doll number two, then use doll number two's key to open up doll number three, et cetera, until you reach the innermost doll. Then you come back the way you went in until you have your result and a fully assembled doll set again. The beauty of recursion is that you structure the computer's solution to the problem in a way that lets you see the problem as nested subproblems of a similar nature.
Siebert 说，当你想编写程序时，一种有用的技巧是手动写下解决问题的所有步骤，并在解决方案中寻找模式。当您捕获该模式时，尝试用英语说出您希望程序执行的操作。然后尝试对其进行编程。最终，您将变得足够流利，可以坐在机器前编写代码，而无需执行中间步骤。但如果您按照建议进行操作，可能会节省调试时间。
Siebert said that when you want to write your programs, one useful technique is to write down all the steps in solving the problem by hand and look for the pattern in the solution. When you capture that pattern, try to say in English what you want the program to do. Then try to program it. Eventually you'll become fluent enough that you can just sit down at the machine and compose code without going through the intermediate steps. But it may save debugging time if you approach it as suggested.
我记得比利时数学教授说过，数学家所做的就是把所有步骤写出来，然后将其浓缩成一种别人无法理解的形式。也许这就是为什么数学专业的学生觉得六双哦一很容易。
I remembered the Belgian mathematics professor's saying that what a mathematician does is write something out with all the steps and then condense it into a form that no one else can understand. Maybe that's why math majors find six double oh one easy.
西伯特接着举了一个“排序”例程的例子。排序例程对于执行诸如按字母顺序排列列表之类的操作非常有用。假设您正在尝试在文件系统中输入一些命令。假设您有一千个项目需要分类。首先，你选择十个左右的类别，然后遍历一堆并将东西放入每一堆中。然后你浏览这十堆并为它们组成子类别，依此类推，直到你将所有内容都放在易于查找的文件中。
Siebert went on to an example of a "sort" routine. A sort routine is useful in doing things like putting lists in alphabetical order. Say you're trying to put some order in your filing system. Say you have one thousand items to categorize. First you pick ten or so categories, and go through the pile and put things in each of the piles. Then you go through the ten piles and make up subcategories for them, and so on, until you have everything in easily findable files.
知识就是力量，信息就是力量，但快速获取知识和信息才是真正的力量。
Knowledge is power, information is power, but speedy access to knowledge and information is real power.
“我们正在帮助您管理复杂性的技术，”他继续说道。
"We're helping you with techniques to manage complexity," he continued.
他说这些都是简单的技术，但是当你将它们链接起来时，你的程序可能会开始拥有自己的生命。你输入一些东西，输出会让你大吃一惊，但它是真实的。然后你会输入其他内容，你会再次感到惊讶。您在系统中构建了如此多的复杂性，以至于您无法理解正在发生的事情。因此，任何足够先进的技术都与魔法没有什么区别。
He said that these are simple techniques, but when you link them, your programs may begin to take on a life of their own. You'll input something and the output will surprise you but it will be real. Then you'll input something else and you'll be surprised again. You build so much complexity into a system that you cannot understand what is happening. And so any sufficiently advanced technology becomes indistinguishable from magic.
是的，但是魔法师控制着魔法，而我想成为一名魔法师。
Yes, but the magician controls the magic, and I want to be a magician.
7月28日
July 28
“你从哪来？” 当我们等待答辩开始时，我问坐在斯隆实验室教室里的外国人。
"Where are you from?" I asked the foreign-looking man seated in the Sloan Lab classroom, while we waited for the defense to begin.
“32号楼。”
"Building 32."
阿里已经完成了博士学位。研究并将完成的手稿提交给他的审查委员会。按照中世纪牛津的惯例，他会在公开辩护中展示他的研究成果。然后，他的委员会将私下协商，决定该研究是否达到麻省理工学院的质量，并任命他为一名医生。
Ari had finished his Ph.D. research and had delivered the completed manuscript to his review committee. As is the custom dating from medieval Oxford, he would present his research in a public defense. His committee would then confer privately, decide whether the research were MIT-quality, and make him a doctor.
阿里的演讲优美、肯定、令人信服。Chet、Scott、Ben、32号楼的外国人以及其他观众离开房间进行商议。短短五分钟后，门打开了，委员会主席说：“恭喜你，所罗门医生。”
Ari's presentation was polished, affirmative, convincing. Chet, Scott, Ben, the foreigner from Building 32, and the rest of the audience left the room for the deliberations. Five short minutes later the door opened and the committee chairman said, "Congratulations, Doctor Solomon."
7月30日，我帮阿里把箱子装进他的车里。感觉就像我从未有过的哥哥要去上大学一样。
July 30. I helped Ari load the boxes into his car. It felt as if the older brother I never had were going away to college.
“你知道他们对我做了什么吗？” 他说。“我论文中的所有数字，我认为补助金肯定会支付的数字，这里图形艺术系的账单达到了 6,800 美元。我必须支付它，否则我就拿不到学位，我浪费了三年的时间我生命中的。”
"You know what they did to me?" he said. "All the figures in my thesis, the ones I thought surely the grant would pay for, the bill from the Graphic Arts department here came to $6,800. And I have to pay it or I don't get the degree and I wasted three years of my life."
“嗯，安，你知道他们叫什么。”
"Well, An, you know what they call that."
“什么，我的朋友？”
"What, my friend?"
“研究所螺丝。”
"The Institute Screw."
“我会想念你的，我的朋友。”
"I will miss you, my friend."
“我也是你，安。我也是你。”
"And I you, An. And I you."
日程：
Schedule:
83 年秋季：2.31 材料强度 (Ghandi)
Fall '83: 2.31 Strength of Materials (Ghandi)
6.111 数字电子实验室（Troxel）（审核）
6.111 Digital Electronics Lab (Troxel) (audit)
2.996 论文
2.996 Thesis
硬件
Hardware
9 月 10 日
September 10
“你好再见”
"Hello Goodbye"
——约翰·列侬-保罗·麦卡特尼
-JOHN LENNON-PAUL MCCARTNEY
六点一十一分。课程六的版本是二七十，只是难了一百倍。这是 20 世纪 70 年代初发明第一个电子游戏的过程。我在高级之家看到孩子们整夜整夜地看，每个晚上，包括周五和周六，都在仔细研究他们的书呆子工具包、公文包大小的盒子，把电线插进芯片旁边的盒子里。我想知道他们在做什么。
Six one eleven. Course Six's version of two seventy, only a hundred times harder. This is the course wherein the first video game was invented in the early 1970s. I'd seen kids at Senior House at all hours of the night, every night, Friday and Saturday included, poring over their nerd kits, the briefcase-size boxes, poking wires into them next to the chips. I wanted to find out what they were up to.
课程六的地下指南说：“6.111是一门关于数字电子电路设计和调试的实用‘动手’实验室课程。你在这门课程中的表现在很大程度上取决于能否让各个实验室发挥作用。因此，尽管从未专门教授过调试能力，但调试能力至关重要……随着课程的进展，材料和相关实验的难度迅速增加；事实上，速度如此之快，以至于讲座往往落后于[轻描淡写]....不幸的是，助教的需求量很大，所以等待一个多小时只是为了检查是很常见的，更不用说寻求帮助了[你要靠自己，孩子]....当然，课程的最后三分之一专门用于臭名昭著的期末项目，该项目通常会填满所有可用的空闲时间[轻描淡写]。只选择 6.111。” 六点一十一是终极消防水带课程。
The underground guide to course Six said, "6.111 is a practical 'hands-on' lab course on the design and debugging of digital electronic circuits. How well you do in this course depends greatly on being able to get the various labs to work. Consequently, the ability to debug, though never specifically taught, is of prime importance. ... The difficulty of the material and the associated labs increases rapidly as the course progresses; so rapidly, in fact, that the lectures tend to fall behind [understatement].... Unfortunately, TAs are in high demand, so waits of over an hour are common just to be checked off, to say nothing of getting help [you're on your own, kid].... Of course, the final third of the course is devoted to the infamous final project, which usually grows to fill all available free time [understatement]. Take 6.111 with nothing else." Six one eleven is the ultimate fire hose course.
我在去听讲座的路上经过一间教室。教授在黑板上画了一个电场，并在房间前面设置了产生该电场的电路。他将一台晶体管收音机调到噪音，就像蒂姆对永动机所做的那样，并描绘了场的轮廓，其形状如黑板上的图表所示。看不见的东西变得可见。Mens et Manus-头脑和手。
I walked past a classroom on the way to the lecture. The professor had drawn an electric field on the blackboard and had set up circuitry to generate that electric field in the front of the room. He had a transistor radio tuned to noise, as Tim did with the perpetual motion machine, and traced the outline of the field, whose shape was as in the diagram on the blackboard. The invisible made visible. Mens et Manus-Mind and Hand.
当每个人都回到自己的座位上时，特罗克塞尔教授正在擦黑板。我想，在麻省理工学院获得终身教职，却还要擦掉课堂上的黑板，这一定是一种耻辱。当然，前一堂课的教授可以把讲课中的黑板笔记擦掉，但他必须把前面的黑板笔记擦掉，该死的擦一会黑板就够了。
Professor Troxel was erasing the blackboard as everyone went to his or her seat. It must be sort of humiliating, I thought, to have tenure at MIT and still have to erase the blackboard from the class before. Of course, the professor from the class before could have erased his blackboard notes from his lecture, but he had to erase the ones from before him and dammit one stint of blackboard erasing is enough.
我只是在听课，他让我坐在那是一种很好的姿态，而且我是另一个系的研究生，如果我帮助他，我不可能被指责为马屁精，所以我很小心一半的董事会。
I was just auditing the class, and it was kind of a nice gesture that he allowed me to sit in, and I was a graduate student from another department and no way could I be accused of brownnosing if I helped him, so I took care of half of the boards.
讲座开始了。“这门课没有课文，因为没有课文涵盖了我们将要涵盖的所有内容，”他说。“今天的讲座部分是布尔代数，部分是为第一个实验室布置组合逻辑。”
The lecture began. "There's no text for the class, because none covers everything we'll be covering," he said. "Today's lecture is partly on Boolean algebra, partly on laying out the combinational logic for the first lab."
布尔代数是组合逻辑的语言。乔治·布尔是一位英国数学家，他在鲁道夫·迪塞尔在金比斯期间开发了逻辑运算符，可以接收两个语句（真或假），并输出第三个语句（真或假）。最简单的是“与”门，它表示：“如果 a 为真且 b 为真，则 c（输出）也为真。如果 a 或 b 或 a 和 b 均为假，则输出为假。 ”
Boolean algebra is the language of combinational logic. George Boole was an English mathemetician, who, around the time Rudolph Diesel was in Kimbies, developed logic operators that could receive two statements, true or false, and output a third statement, true or false. The simplest was an "and" gate, which said, "If a is true and b is true, then c (the output) is also true. If either a or b or both a and b are false, the output is false."
布尔不知道他一个多世纪前开发的系统会成为电子设计师的面包和黄油。因此，今天的高等数学可能是一个世纪后任何设计师的面包和黄油。如此反复发生。但后来 Bardeen 博士（普林斯顿大学，博士 1936 年[对不起，麻省理工学院]）发现了半导体。我在伦敦科学博物馆的微处理器展览上看到过他的实验笔记。它们和我在 RCM 牢房里的笔记一样混乱，但它们为他赢得了诺贝尔奖。
Boole had no idea that the system he developed over a century ago would become the bread and butter of electronics designers. And so the advanced mathematics of today may be the bread and butter of whatever designers a century from now. And so it recurs. But then Dr. Bardeen (Princeton, Ph.D. 1936 [sorry, MIT]) discovered the semiconductor. I'd seen his lab notes on display at the microprocessor exhibit at the Science Museum in London. They were fully as messy as my notes in the RCM cell, but they won him a Nobel Prize.
半导体是晶体管的心脏。我第一次与晶体管的联系是我七岁时我的祖父送给我的晶体管收音机；它是我第一次接触晶体管。从盒子里拿出黑色塑料味的盒子，我问父亲为什么制造商劳埃德有两个 1。
The semiconductor is the heart of a transistor. My first association with transistors was with the transistor radio my mother's father gave me when I was seven; its black plastic-smelling case came out of the box and I asked my father why Lloyd, the manufacturer, had two 1's.
晶体管就像一个电灯开关。打开灯开关就形成了一个电路，让电流流向灯。晶体管也能做同样的事情，只不过不是把你的手指放在开关上，而是像你的手指一样微小的电流，当它到达晶体管时就会打开晶体管。但与电灯开关不同的是，无论你多么灵巧，每秒只能打开和关闭它三到四次，而晶体管每秒可以打开和关闭大约一百万次。这些是我在暑期电子课上学到的，尽管那个混蛋给了我一个 C。
A transistor is like a light switch. Turning on a light switch completes a circuit and lets electricity go to the light. A transistor does the same thing, only instead of putting your finger on a switch, a teensy tinesy bit of electricity is like your finger, and it switches the transistor on when it goes to the transistor. But unlike a light switch, where, no matter how dextrous you are, you can only turn it on and off three or four times per second, you can turn a transistor on and off about a million times per second. That much I'd managed to pick up in my summer electronics class, even though the jerk gave me a C.
如果您可以打开和关闭，则可以说“是”和“否”，如果您将“是”定义为打开，将“否”定义为关闭，或者将“否”定义为打开，将“是”定义为关闭。如果你足够快地说“是”和“否”，并且你链接的逻辑很聪明，你就可以创造出一台具有“智能”的机器。
If you can turn on and off, you can say yes and no, if you define yes as on and no as off or no as on and yes as off. And if you say yes and no fast enough and are clever in the logic you link, you can create a machine with "intelligence."
特罗克塞尔在讲座的前半个小时里就讲完了所有布尔代数（较小的学校会用整个学期的时间来学习这个科目），这时一名披萨送货员打开了演讲厅的门。“为约翰·多伊先生准备的披萨，”那家伙说。
Troxel blasted through all of Boolean algebra in the first halfhour of the lecture (lesser schools spend entire semesters on this subject), at which point a pizza delivery person opened the door to the lecture hall. "Pizza for a Mr. John Doe," the guy said.
特罗克塞尔停下了千分之几秒，在他的万亿分之一的世界里度过了很长一段时间，在笑声平息下来，顶排的孩子给送货员付了钱后，他说道：“这将教我们安排讲座午餐时间。”
Troxel stopped dead in his tracks for a few thousandths of a second, a long time in his world of trillionths, and said after the laughter died down and the kid in the top row paid the deliverer, "That'll teach us to schedule lectures during lunchtime."
他以对课程的概述结束了讲座。“你会发现，在逻辑设计中，就像在任何设计中一样，有不止一种方式来陈述逻辑关系；即，有同义词。这些同义词在含义上有细微的差异，就像在英语中一样。英语是表达性的，但不精确。 ，这就是律师赚这么多钱的原因。使用最接近你想说的话的逻辑将帮助你现在与你的实验室合作伙伴以及以后与你自己进行沟通。
He ended the lecture with an overview of the course. "You'll find that in logic design, as in any design, there's more than one way to state a logical relation; i.e., there are synonyms. These synonyms have subtle differences in meaning, as in English. English is expressive but not exact, which is why lawyers make so much money. Using the logic that says closest to what you want to say will help you communicate with your lab partner now and with yourself later."
这听起来很熟悉。西伯特在夏天说过这句话。我怀疑部门里是否有什么阴谋。
That sounded familiar. Siebert had said that in the summer. I wondered whether there were some kind of conspiracy in the department.
“但这不是法学院，也不是医学院。我们不会让你记住某些芯片的功能。你可以在 TTL 数据手册中查找，就像硅谷每个数字设计师所做的那样。芯片中已经投入了很多东西，您必须通过查看数据手册来发现要使用哪种芯片。随着您的不断前进，您将获得经验并发展出关于什么将起作用的直觉。您将开发你的个人技巧书，我将在讲座期间添加一些我自己的技巧书。
"But this isn't law school, and it isn't medical school. We won't have you memorizing what certain chips do. You can look that up in the TTL Data Book, the way every digital designer in Silicon Valley does. A lot has been put into chips already, and you'll have to discover what chip to use by looking through the data book. And as you go along, you'll gain experience and develop intuition about what's going to work. You'll develop your personal Book of Tricks, to which I'll add a few of my own during the lectures.
“我强烈鼓励你尽快完成前三个实验，这样你就有时间完成第四个实验，如果你的设计不是次优的话，这将占用你的整个书呆子工具包。实验室的设计明显次优四个根本不适合您的电路板。
"And I strongly encourage you to work through the first three labs as quickly as possible, so that you will have time to complete lab four, which will take up your entire nerd kit, if your design is not suboptimal. Significantly suboptimal designs for lab four simply won't fit on your circuit boards.
“当然，还有‘项目’。你现在应该开始考虑一个实验室合作伙伴；最大的小组规模是三人，两个人可能是理想的。超过三人，它就变成了一个管理项目，而不是一个工程项目。不过，请谨慎选择您的合作伙伴。
"And then, of course, there is The Project. You should start thinking about a lab partner now; the maximum group size is three, and two is probably ideal. More than three and it becomes a management project, not an engineering project. Choose your partner carefully, though.
“我鼓励你在这门课和这个项目上取得好成绩。如果我只根据这门课程做出聘用决定，如果你的成绩是 A，我会立即聘用你，而不需要面试。如果你的成绩是 B ，我会采访你，询问你的六一十一项目。如果你得了 C，你就进不了门。祝你好运。”
"I encourage you to do well in this class and on the project. If I were to make a hiring decision based only on this course, I'd hire you immediately without an interview if your grade is an A. If you had a B, I'd interview you and ask you about your six one eleven project. And if you had a C you wouldn't get in the door. Good luck."
我想，这是一门很好的课程，只是为了旁听，而不是为了获得成绩。我不需要更多的C。
This is a good course just to audit, rather than to take for a grade, I thought. I don't need any more C's.
章节
C H A P T E R
18
18
结果
Results
11. 。。大多数现实生活中的问题都是为了杀人。。。...
11 . . . most real-life problems are for killing people . . . ...
——在麻省理工学院走廊里无意中听到的匿名评论
-Anonymous comment overheard in MIT corridor
10 月 20 日
October 20
与此同时，回到发动机实验室……
Meanwhile, back in the engine lab ...
“胶卷已装好，”我说。
"Film loaded," I said.
“检查一下，”我的实验室伙伴斯科特说。
"Check," Scott my lab partner said.
“相机对焦。”
"Camera focused."
“查看。”
"Check."
“燃油喷射器已启动。”
"Fuel injector armed."
“查看。”
"Check."
“计算机数据采集系统启动。”
"Computer data acquisition system initiated."
“查看。”
"Check."
“示波器已启动。”
"Oscilloscope initiated."
“查看。”
"Check."
“实验室熄灯了。”
"Lab lights out."
“查看。”
"Check."
“手电筒打开。”
"Flashlight on."
“查看。”
"Check."
“提高油箱压力。”
"Raise tank pressure."
“五十磅/平方英寸，60 ... 70 ... 80 ... 90 ...”
"Fifty psi, 60 ... 70 ... 80 ... 90 ..."
牢房门意外地打开了，突然，让我猝不及防，吓了一跳。“那到底是谁？你没看到我们正在做测试吗？” 我叫道。
The cell door opened unexpectedly, suddenly, caught me off guard, made me jump. "Who the hell is that? Can't you see we're doing a test?" I barked.
是尼克。
It was Nick.
“呃，嘿，呃，船长，”他说，对我的爆发感到惊讶。他看起来很受伤，就像失去了一个朋友一样。他看起来就像两年前我在吉夫托普洛斯的办公室里流泪之前的样子。但他仍坚持这一点；在麻省理工学院的二十年让他变得坚强起来。“实验室门上没有任何标志，所以我想我得去看看你，看看你做得怎么样。如果我搞砸了实验，我很抱歉。”
"Uh, g'momin', uh, Cap'n," he said, taken aback at my outburst. He looked hurt, as if he'd lost a friend. He looked the way I must have just before I broke into tears in Gyftopoulos's office two years before. But he held it at that; twenty years at MIT had toughened him. "There wasn't any sign on the lab door'n all so I figured I'd sotta check in on you an' see how you were doin'. Sorry if I messed up the experiment."
我没看完。“好吧，该死的，尼克，下次敲门，好吗？现在我们必须从头开始。此外，如果你在摄像机运行时打开门，你就会毁掉一次测试。”
I wasn't through. "Well, dammit, Nick, next time knock, will you? Now we have to start all over. Besides, if you'd opened the door when the camera was running you would have ruined a test."
尼克的表情更加阴沉了。“对不起，船长。”
Nick's expression sank further. "Sorry, Cap'n."
研究所对我的虐待，对我自尊心的伤害，就像水箱里的压力一样堆积起来；它需要发泄，而尼克是最近的受害者。
The abuse the institute had dealt me, the damage it had done to my self-esteem, had piled up like the pressure in the tank; it needed to be vented, and Nick was the nearest victim.
斯科特打开阀门，排出罐中的空气。“没什么大不了的，”他说，试图修补关系。“一切都准备好了。我们可以重新开始序列。我们将完成今天需要做的所有测试。”
Scott opened the valve and dumped the air from the tank. "It's no big deal," he said, trying to patch things up. "Everything's armed. We can just start the sequence again. We'll finish all the tests we need to do today."
“哎呀，尼克，对不起，”我说。“我只是在那儿迷失了一分钟。”
"Gee, Nick, I'm sorry," I said. "I just kind of lost it there for a minute."
“没关系，船长。我见过很多学生都遇到过这种情况。就像一位教授曾经对我说过的那样。他们对你施加热量，让你变得坚硬，就像对待钢铁一样。 ”
" 'S all right, Cap'n. I've seen it happen to a lotta students here. It's like one of the professors said to me once. They put the heat on you to harden you, just like they do to steel."
我想知道，现在我是这个地方的产物了。更快、更聪明、傲慢、不耐烦、直接、不人道。我必须离开这里。但如果我对已经习惯了这些人的尼克来说是一个强硬、傲慢的混蛋，那么对于世界其他人来说我会是谁呢？我希望我能永远留在这里。
So now I'm a product of this place, I wondered. Quicker, smarter, arrogant, impatient, directed, inhumane. I've got to get out of here. But if I'm a tough, arrogant jerk to Nick, who's used to these people, who will I be to the rest of the world? I wish I could stay here forever.
“船长，在一间闲置的牢房里有一个标牌。我去给你拿来，”尼克说，然后他带着一个带框的白色标牌回来，就像牢房门上的标牌一样，上面写着，“测试正在进行中，请勿打扰。”
"There's a sign down in one of the idle cells, Cap'n. I'll go bring it for you," Nick said, and he returned with a framed white sign, like the one on the door of the cell, that said, "Test in progress; do not disturb."
“谢谢，尼克，”我说。
"Thanks, Nick," I said.
切特把拐角弄圆，进入牢房。
Chet rounded the comer into the cell.
“那么你们怎么样？” 他问。
"So how you guys doing?" he asked.
我回答说：“好的。我们要做一系列的测试。我们今天的目标是做有涡流的情况和无涡流的情况。” 涡流是指空气在发动机中旋转，就像漩涡一样。这样可以使柴油与空气更好地混合，从而燃烧得更好。没有漩涡就意味着不是。
I answered, "OK. We're about to do a series of tests. We're aiming to do the swirl case and the no swirl case today." Swirl means the air is spinning in the engine, like a whirlpool. That's supposed to mix the diesel fuel with the air better so it bums better. No swirl means it's not.
切特说：“好吧，如果你让这两个案例发挥作用，你最好继续前进。你知道，当一次用这么多件进行的实验同时发挥作用时，你必须在出现问题之前保持动力。我的朋友们很多都花了三个多年来进行他们的实验，有一天进行测试。我会闲逛并成为一名啦啦队长。我们还应该改变气温，看看这如何影响点火延迟。如果你得到五个温度，你可以制作一个图表，然后将成为你的论文。”
Chet said, "Well, if you get those two cases to work, you'd better keep going. You know when an experiment with this many pieces works all at once you gotta keep the momentum before something breaks. A lotta my friends spent three years building their experiments and one day doing the tests. I'll hang around and be a cheerleader. We also oughta vary the air temperature and see how that affects the ignition delay. If you get five temperatures, you can make a graph and that will be your thesis."
隧道尽头的灯光不再是反方向驶来的火车。我今天就可以得到数据。一些漂亮的电影让预选赛的评审教授惊叹不已，还有一些对电影的分析。麻省理工学院硕士。我记得西弗吉尼亚大学的一个人在谈论那个去年夏天在那里的人，他拥有麻省理工学院的硕士学位，他是多么聪明。当然，现在我的眼光更高了，麻省理工学院、博士、金钱都在我一生的待办事项清单上。每当你接近一个里程碑时，你就会展望下一个里程碑。
The light at the end of the tunnel wasn't a train coming the other way anymore. I could have the data today. Some pretty movies to wow the reviewing professors at the qualifiers, some analysis of the films. Master's from MIT. I remembered the sound of it from the guy at West Virginia U talking about the guy who'd been there the summer before who had a master's from MIT and how smart he was. Of course, now my sights were higher, and M-I-T, P-H-D, M-O-N-E-Y was on my lifetime to-do list. Whenever you near a milestone you look ahead to the next one.
所有系统都在我的太空计划的微型版本中。现在，喷油器每次喷射都能喷射出一致量的燃油。（我已经弄清楚如何使用联合技术公司技术人员乔治给我的垃圾片来修改内部结构。）它的球形喷嘴现在朝着正确的方向前进。乔治的商店第一次没有正确阅读我的图纸，所以我拿了一个高尔夫球到那里，将其标记为一个巨大的喷嘴，然后将其展示给机械师，以确保他第二次知道我在说什么。
All systems were go in my miniature version of the space program. The injector now spurted consistent amounts of fuel on every injection. (I'd figured out how to modify the insides using the pieces of junk that George the technician at United Technologies had given me.) Its spherical nozzle went in the right direction now. George's shop didn't read my drawing right the first time, so I'd taken a golf ball out there and marked it up like a giant nozzle and shown it to the machinist to make sure he knew what I was talking about the second time.
我们测试了我设计的透明窗户，我们知道它能够承受燃烧的压力。那是我的机器的一端。
And we'd tested the clear window I'd designed, and we knew it would withstand the pressure of the combustion. That was my end of the machine.
就斯科特而言，他已经完成了新的启动机制，并且对实验排序的电子设备进行了设置，以使一切在正确的时间发生。我们知道影片需要多长时间才能达到每秒 3,000 帧的观看速率。我们知道活塞从机器一端移动 18 英寸到另一端需要多长时间。我们知道启动机构和喷油器的机械延迟时间。有了所有这些数据，我们构建了一个地图，一个实验序列，就像编舞者会编排舞蹈，或者作曲家会安排乐谱一样。
For his part, Scott had finished the new starting mechanism, and the electronics to sequence the experiment were set to make everything happen at the right time. We knew just how long the film would take to reach a viewing rate of 3,000 frames per second. We knew just how long the piston would take to travel the 18 inches from one end of the machine to the other. We knew the mechanical delay times in the starting mechanism and the fuel injector. With all this data, we'd constructed a map, a sequence of the experiment, much as a choreographer would block out a dance, or a composer would arrange a score.
我们在黑色的小电子计时盒中拨入了适当的延迟，即千分之几秒。上帝保佑，延迟将是可重复的，电影将捕获燃烧，计算机将捕获压力数据，我会找到一些有灵感的东西来讲述这一切。
We'd dialed in the appropriate delays, all thousandths of seconds, in the little black electronic timing boxes. God willing, the delays would be repeatable, the film would catch the combustion, the computer would catch the pressure data, and I would find something inspired to say about it all.
“实验室灯灭了，”我说。
"Lab lights off," I said.
“检查一下，”斯科特说。
"Check," Scott said.
“手电筒打开。”
"Flashlight on."
“查看。”
"Check."
“提高储罐压力：50 psi ... 60 ... 70 ... 80 ... 90..
"Raise tank pressure: 50 psi ... 60 ... 70 ... 80 ... 90. .
机器吱吱作响，发出 90 磅/平方英寸的重击声，但我知道在什么压力下它会发出每种噪音，所以对于每个磅/平方英寸的压力，我的脉搏频率每分钟只增加半次，比之前发射时的两次下降。
The machine creaked and made the 90-psi thunk, but I knew at what pressure it would make each noise so my pulse rate only increased half a beat per minute for each psi of pressure, down from two beats during the earlier firings.
我继续让空气进入罐子。“100...110...115、116、117、118、119、120，稳定，”我说。
I continued to let the air in the tank. "100... 110... 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120 and steady," I said.
吱吱声停止了。机器在高应力状态下处于平衡状态。
The creaking stopped. The machine was at equilibrium at its high state of stress.
“查看。”
"Check."
“说一点祈祷吧。”
"Say a little prayer."
暂停。安静。
Pause. Silence.
“查看。”
"Check."
“火！”
"Fire!"
ZZZZZZIIINNNNGGGG。电影滚了。点击。轴被释放。繁荣。闪光。点火。我们有点火装置，休斯顿。
ZZZZZZIIINNNNGGGGG. The film rolled. Click. The shaft released. Boom. Flash. Ignition. We have ignition, Houston.
一切只在一瞬间。“好吧，把灯打开，”切特说。“写下油箱和喷油器压力表上的读数。稍后您可能需要这些信息。您可能不会，但如果您不写下来，它就会永远丢失。我认为我们得到了一个很好的结果测试。我认为这将是一个很好的测试日。”
All in half a heartbeat. "Okay, turn the lights on," Chet said. "Write down the readings on the pressure gauge in the tank and on the fuel injector. You might need that information later. You probably won't, but if you don't write it down it's lost forever. I think we got a good test. I think it's going to be a good test day."
我在实验室笔记本上记录了压力并将压力倾倒到水箱中。我们打开门，尼克站在外面。
I recorded the pressures in the lab notebook and dumped the pressure to the tank. We opened the door and Nick was standing outside.
“听起来不错，船长。一切听起来都恰到好处。是的，我敢打赌，那一个把建筑物又拉了千分之一英寸左右。我们最好留意墙上的裂缝。”
"Sounded like a good one, Cap'n. Everything sounded just right. Yep, I bet that one took the building another thousandth of an inch apaht or so. We better keep an eye on that crack in the wall."
“谢谢，尼克。还有五年，我就会获得硕士学位。”
"Thanks, Nick. Five more to go and I'll have a master's degree."
津。点击。繁荣。我们将这个序列重复五次，有旋流、没有旋流、空气温度不同。电脑每次都能工作。闪光灯每次都有效。但这部电影每次都成功吗？
Zing. Click. Boom. We repeated the sequence five times, with swirl, without swirl, with different air temperatures. The computer worked every time. The flash worked every time. But did the film work every time?
我把未冲洗的胶卷装进背包里，骑车穿过哈佛桥（麻省理工学院旁边横跨查尔斯河的桥），从哈佛桥沿着联邦大道，经过那些升值指数级的公寓，最后到达南端的胶片冲印实验室。
I loaded the undeveloped film in my backpack and cycled across the Harvard Bridge (the bridge next to MIT spanning the Charles), from the Harvard Bridge down Commonwealth Avenue past the exponentially appreciating condominiums and on to the film developing lab in the South End.
仿佛就在昨天，去年春天，我用同样的路线拍摄了燃油喷射到空气中的胶片。那时，粉红色的玉兰花正在盛开，它们的香味甚至压倒了我前面的柴油巴士的烟雾。
It seemed like yesterday, last spring when I'd done the same route with the film of the fuel injection into air. The pink magnolia flowers were blooming then, their fragrance overpowering even the diesel bus fumes ahead of me.
现在树叶正在变色，我只闻到了柴油机尾气的味道。但如果测试成功，我很快就会在形成的几毫秒内看到排气。我会看到鲁道夫·迪塞尔只能想象的东西。如果我能看到排气，也许我可以在其中找到一种模式，一种洞察力，一种看待它的新方式，也许，只是也许，能找到进入未来几代柴油发动机的方法。在科技的埃菲尔铁塔里，我会是一颗铆钉。
Now the leaves were changing and I smelled only the diesel exhaust. But if the test were successful, I would soon see that exhaust in its formative milliseconds. I would see what Rudolph Diesel could only imagine. If I could see the exhaust, perhaps I could find a pattern in it, an insight, a new way of looking at it that would maybe, just maybe, find its way into future generations of diesel engines. In the Eiffel tower of technology, I would be a rivet.
10 月 22 日
October 22
大多数 Calorics 学生都已毕业，但 Senior House 拥有一支 B 联赛的校内足球队，比 C 联赛高一级。团队中的每个人都是十九岁的瘦子，但二十六岁的我更聪明。
Most of the Calorics had graduated, but Senior House had an intramural soccer team in B-league, one notch above C-league. Everyone on the team was a skinny nineteen-year-old, but at twenty-six I was wiser.
“来吧，你这个胖老头，”他们说。“跑。移动。”
"Come on, you fat old man," they said. "Run. Move."
我玩得很聪明。我在正确的时间出现在左翼的正确位置，当我将球射入网后时，守门员措手不及。给我打一分吧
I played smart. I was at the right place at the right time at left wing and the goalie was flatfooted when I rocketed the shot to the back of the net. Score one for me.
比赛结束后，高级宿舍的工作人员穿过校园回到沃克餐厅，我独自去靠近实验室的洛布德尔吃饭。我自己吃的越来越多。第一年的朋友都走了，我结识新朋友的努力也放松了。现在最重要的是论文，然后是博士资格考试。
After the game the Senior House crew returned across campus to Walker dining hall and I went to eat in Lobdell, closer to the lab, by myself. More and more I ate by myself. Friends from the first year were gone and I'd slackened in my efforts to make new friends. All that mattered now was the thesis, and after that the doctoral qualifying exams.
辛迪·布鲁克斯坐在我桌旁。几分钟的谈话后，她说：“你是个孤独的人，不是吗？”
Cindy Brooks sat at my table. After a few minutes of conversation, she said, "You're kind of a loner, aren't you?"
10 月 25 日
October 25
安置办公室位于12号楼，与无限走廊同一层。它使招聘人员更容易找到地方。我已经报名与石油勘探公司斯伦贝谢的人员交谈。
The placement office is in Building 12, on the same level as the infinite corridor. It makes it easier for the recruiters to find the place. I'd signed up to talk to the people from Schlumberger, the oil exploration company.
我对勘探石油没有兴趣；在我内心深处，我更愿意探索工业工厂，寻找降低石油需求的方法。但这些人在 1983 年第一年就赚了大约五万美元，加上奖金，而且他们的税收没有那么高，因为他们在马来西亚和印度尼西亚等海外工作。三年后你可以用现金买一套房子，然后做你想做的事。麻省理工学院的硕士学位使您有资格从事此类工作。
I had no interest in exploring for oil; in my heart of hearts I would prefer to explore industrial plants for ways to lower the need for oil. But these guys made about fifty thousand 1983 dollars in their first year, plus bonuses, and their taxes weren't as high because they worked overseas in places like Malaysia and Indonesia. In three years you can buy a house for cash and then do what you want. A master's from MIT qualifies you for this kind of job.
安置办公室的天窗明亮，摆着几张桌子，上面摆着公司宣传册，上面的照片大多是穿着衬衫打领带的男性和穿着实验室夹克的女性，以及诸如“在 Data General 拓展您的视野”和“让您的职业生涯与杜邦一起成长”之类的标题。
The placement office was skylit, had several tables with corporate brochures with pictures of mostly men in shirtsleeves and ties and women wearing lab jackets, and headings like "Expand your horizons at Data General" and "Let your career grow with Du Pont."
这一天，除了正常的面试之外，二年级的六甲学生（六门课程专业；一种带薪实习）正在面试他们的带薪实习职位。这些电气工程师将在本科阶段的部分时间在工业界工作，支付他们的教育费用，提供廉价的熟练劳动力，并在毕业前获得“现实世界”的经验。六人制运动员都穿着同样的深蓝色西装、白衬衫、红色领带、黑色鞋子和袜子；我想知道面试官如何区分他们。
This day, in addition to the normal interviews, the sophomore Six-a's (Course Six majors; a means co-op) were interviewing for their co-op positions. These electrical engineers would spend part of their undergraduate years working in industry, defray the cost of their education, provide cheap skilled labor, and obtain "realworld" experience before graduation. The Six-a's all wore the same dark blue suit, white shirt, red tie, and black shoes and socks; I wondered how the interviewers could tell them apart.
当特尤尼森先生穿着浅蓝色西装走出面试隔间的后面区域并伸出手时，我签到了采访。“怀特先生？” 他说。
I signed in for the interview as Mr. Theunissen, in a light blue suit, walked out of the back area of interview cubicles and put his hand out. "Mr. White?" he said.
“是的，”我说，并按照安置办公室面试指南中的建议，坚定地与他握手。
"Yes," I said and shook his hand firmly, as recommended in the placement office guide to interviewing.
“很高兴认识你。请这边来。” 他领着我穿过又长又窄的走廊，走廊两边各有一个采访小隔间，门上有门以保证隐私。不过，墙壁不是很厚，所以当我们经过他的空间时，我们可以看到一些采访的片段。“昨晚你为什么没有参加有关公司的幻灯片演示？” 他问。“必须出席。”
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Please come this way." He led me back through the long narrow corridor with the little interview compartments on each side, with doors for privacy. The walls weren't very thick, though, so we could pick up bits and pieces of the interviews as we passed to his space. "Why weren't you at the slide presentation about the company last night?" he asked. "Attendance was mandatory."
什么幻灯片演示？他试图让我措手不及。但他不是杨彻。他也不是海伍德或吉夫托普洛斯。
What slide presentation? He's trying to catch me off guard. He's no Chet Yeung, though. Nor is he a Heywood or a Gyftopoulos.
“我今天早上考试了，我真的需要学习，”我回答道。“你有视频或者什么东西可以借给我吗？图书馆里有录像机。”
"I had a test this morning, and I really needed to study for it," I answered. "Do you have a video or anything I can borrow? There are VCRs in the library."
他微笑着，在本子上做了一个小记录。“不，我认为没有必要。如果您来休斯顿拜访我们，您会找到您需要了解的有关我们业务的所有信息。您为什么有兴趣为斯伦贝谢工作？”
He smiled, made a little note on his pad. "No, I don't think that will be necessary. If you come visit us in Houston, you'll find out all you need to know about our business. Why are you interested in working for Schlumberger?"
“我听说你们赚了很多钱，”我说。
"I hear you guys make tons of money," I said.
这次他笑得更开心了，差点笑出声来，并又做了笔记。“你知道，这是第一次有人以这种方式回答这个问题，”他说。“你觉得我们能赚多少钱？”
He smiled more this time, almost laughed, and made another note. "You know, that's the first time anyone has ever answered that question that way," he said. "How much do you think we make?"
“哦，我不知道，也许 5 万美元左右。我想和你们在一起几年后我就已经做好了生活的准备。”
"Oh, I don't know, maybe $50K or so. I figure after a few years with you guys I'd be set for life."
“是的，你说得对，第一年至少五万，然后在公司的前五年就达到十万，然后，随着你晋升管理层，薪酬就会变得更多。”并且更具吸引力。”
"Yes, you're right; it's at least fifty thousand in the first year, and then within the first five years at the company it reaches up to one hundred thousand; then, as you move up in management, the compensation package becomes more and more attractive."
我微笑着，在本子上记下了一些小笔记。
I smiled, made a little note on my pad.
他问了一个问题：“上面写着你说法语。你介意我们用法语进行几分钟的采访吗？”
He asked a question, "It says here you speak French. Would you mind if we conducted the interview in French for a few minutes?"
“Bien Stir; et italien？” （当然，之后是意大利语怎么样？）几分钟后，在他的记事本上做了友好的标记，我们又回到了英语。
"Bien stir; et italien?" (Sure, how about Italian after that?) After a few minutes and friendly marks on his notepad we returned to English.
“我看到你在比利时的冯·卡门研究所呆了一段时间。你愿意告诉我一些你在那里做了什么吗？”
"I see you spent some time in Belgium at the von Karman Institute. Would you care to tell me a little about what you did there?"
这是面试的一部分，他们希望你展示如何传达技术概念；这对于将来与国王、酋长或石油部长的会面可能很重要。联盟会议的演讲让我为此做好了准备。“嗯，我花了很多时间研究空气流速测量技术，例如热线风速测定法。” 一两句话也无伤大雅。无论如何，他可能从未听说过热线风速计。
This is the part of the interview where they want you to show how you can communicate technical concepts; it might be important in a meeting with a king or a sheik or an oil minister someday in the future. The consortium meeting presentations had prepped me for this. "Well, I spent a lot of time dealing with air flow speed measurement techniques such as hot wire anemometry." A big word or two couldn't hurt. He'd probably never heard of hot wire anemometry anyway.
“这非常有趣，”他说。“事实上，我在巴黎高等技术学院的论文涉及探索热线风速计的电子局限性。”
"That's very interesting," he said. "In fact, my thesis at the Ecole Technique Superieure in Paris involved exploring the electronic limitations of hot wire anemometry."
呃哦。我违反了面试的第一条规则。永远不要抛出一个你无法用完整的解释来支持的流行语，以及它的专业知识树的推导。我希望他们能把这一点放在面试手册中，而不是关于领带颜色的提示。
Uh-oh. I'd broken interview rule number one. Never throw out a buzzword that you can't back up with a full explanation, a derivation of its tree of specialized knowledge. I wished they'd put that in the interview handbook instead of tips on tie colors.
两年半前我就这么做了。那是在我学会如何内化事物的深层结构之前，我正忙着享受在布鲁塞尔为期一年的带薪假期。“呃。这与冷却电线的气流有关。当细短的电线冷却时，其电阻会减小。电线处于电路中，电阻的减小或增加有点像电路的输入。它改变电路的输出，这就是你知道流动速度有多快的方法。” 我想，应该可以了。对于求职面试来说，一般性讨论就足够了，不是吗？这不是博士资格考试。
It was two and a half years ago I did that. It was before I'd learned about internalizing the deep structures of things, and I was busy enjoying my year-long paid vacation in Brussels. "Uh. It has to do with the air flow cooling off a wire. As the fine short length of wire cools, its resistance decreases. The wire is in an electrical circuit, and the decrease or increase in electrical resistance is sort of like an input to the circuit. It changes the output to the circuit, and that's how you know how fast the flow is going." That should do it, I thought. A general discussion is sufficient for a job interview, isn't it? This isn't a doctoral qualifying exam.
他想要更多。“您介意画出风速计所适用的电路吗？”
He wanted more. "Would you mind sketching the circuit that the anemometer would fit into?"
“呃，哎呀，已经有一段时间了，呃……”
"Well, gee, it's been a while and, uh ..."
“如果你愿意的话，可以花几分钟时间。我就看报纸，”他说着，从公文包里拿出了《费加罗报》。
"You can take a couple of minutes if you'd like. I'll just read my newspaper," he said, removing his copy of Le Figaro from his briefcase.
我试图记住暑期电子课上关于惠斯通电桥测量电路如何工作的解释。那时我已经理解了大约百分之八十，足以通过课程。不过，他在报纸后面，偶尔翻动一页，集中注意力有点困难。
I tried to remember the explanation from my summer electronics class of how a Wheatstone bridge measurement circuit worked. I'd understood about 80 percent of it then, just enough to pass the class. It was a little hard to concentrate, though, with him behind the paper, occasionally flipping the page.
“这是我目前能做的最好的事情了，”我最后说道。我展示并简要解释了我的草图。“因此，当这条腿的电阻发生变化时，电路中的这两点之间就会产生电压差，这就是您在示波器上看到的结果；我记得有一个技巧可以为电路建立方程来求解电压，但我现在不记得了。也许我今晚可以把它邮寄给你。”
"This is the best I can do for now," I said finally. I showed and briefly explained my sketch. "And so as the resistance changes in this leg, it makes a voltage difference between these two points in the circuit and that's what you see on the oscilloscope; I remember there's a trick to setting up the equations for the circuit to solve for the voltage, but I can't remember that right now. Maybe I could mail it to you this evening."
“那没有必要。我想现在就足够了。我们希望你能拿到一份申请表并尽快寄给我们。我会把它拿给其他一些招聘人员看，我们可能会这样做。”邀请你到休斯敦进行进一步的采访，”他说。
"That won't be necessary. I think that's enough for now. We would like you to take an application form and send it in to us as soon as you can. I'll show it to some of the other recruiters and we may invite you to Houston for some further interviews," he said.
我想我通过了。
I think I passed.
那天晚上，在我的办公室。当我扫描第一次燃烧测试的高速影片时，桌面电影观看器突然响起。数百帧都是黑暗、黑暗、黑暗。我预计大部分时间都是黑暗：相机需要在大部分测试中加速；这就是为什么它是第一个被打开的东西。
That night, in my office. Whirrwhirrwhirrwhirrr went the desktop film viewer as I scanned the high-speed movie of the first combustion test. It was blackness, blackness, blackness for hundreds of frames. I was expecting mostly darkness: the camera needed to accelerate for most of the test; that's why it was the first thing to be turned on.
第 800 帧显示了一幅图像。我放慢了电影观众的速度。801 更亮，802 更亮，803 更亮，每一帧都是千分之三秒。我在牛顿的旧相机商店找到的三个闪光灯开始照亮燃烧窗口。804、805、806、807处于全亮度状态，但圆柱体中没有任何反应。我希望我们能抓住燃料的喷射。我希望所有延迟的同步都是正确的。
Frame 800 showed an image. I slowed the film viewer. 801 was brighter, 802 brighter still, 803 brighter still, each frame a three-thousandth of a second. The three flashes that I'd found at the used camera store in Newton started to light the combustion window. 804, 805, 806, 807 were at full brightness, but nothing was happening in the cylinder. I hoped we caught the injection of the fuel. I hoped our synchronization of all the delays was correct.
810、811，柴油出现在喷嘴尖端，一组从中心呈放射状喷出的海星状液体射流。我们有注射，休斯顿。812、813，喷射流穿过圆柱体。又过了十四帧，燃料不断流入燃烧室的热空气中。加油，大佬，你可以的。几个框架的燃料喷射变得更厚。828、829然后返回到之前十四帧的常规流程，然后是一帧的另一个厚度脉冲。当柱塞压缩液体时，注射器内的小部件上下弹动，液体流出，柱塞再次压缩液体，液体再次流出。
810, 811, the diesel fuel appeared at the nozzle tip, a liquid starfish-shaped set of jets radially emanating from the center. We have injection, Houston. 812, 813, the jets traversed the cylinder. Fourteen more frames, fuel kept flowing into the hot air in the combustion chamber. Come on, big guy, you can do it. The fuel jets became thicker for a couple of frames. 828, 829 then returned to the regular flow of the previous fourteen frames, then another pulse of thickness for a frame. The little parts inside the injector were bouncing up and down as the plunger compressed the liquid and the liquid went out and the plunger compressed it again and the liquid went out again.
我们走吧，伙计。烧伤。
Let's go, guy. Burn.
第 831 帧。我们点火了，休斯顿。圆柱体的边缘开始出现橙色的小光，然后就像一座着火的房子一样，橙色变成了亮黄色，然后当火焰吞没了外面的喷射流时几乎变成了白色——明亮的火焰海星。
Frame 831. We have ignition, Houston. Little orange lights started at the edge of the cylinder, and then like a house afire the orangeness became bright yellow, then almost white as the flame engulfed the jets from the outside in-a bright flaming starfish.
请参阅图 1。请下一张幻灯片。
Please refer to Figure 1. Next slide, please.
海星燃烧、燃烧、燃烧，直到……第 839 帧，正如我们所看到的，烟灰颗粒在火焰外部形成……海星现在不在那里了，只是原始星系形成的发光余烬。发光和黑暗产生了海星生命的最后一口气，喘息着，发光的余烬逐渐消退，回到逐渐消失的黑暗中……这是没有漩涡的情况。由于较少的燃料在燃烧前蒸发，并且更多的燃料在空气匮乏的环境中被有效地烘烤而不是燃烧，所以存在残留的烟灰形成。
The starfish flamed and burned and flamed until ... frame 839, as we can see, the soot particles are forming around the outside of the flame and ... the starfish is no longer there now, just a glowing ember of primordial galaxies forming and glowing and darkness yielding the last breath of the starfish's life gasping, glowing embers fading fading back into fading darkness ... this is the no swirl case. There is residual soot formation as less of the fuel vaporizes prior to combustion and more of the fuel is effectively baked, not burned, in an air-starved environment.
请下一张幻灯片。漩涡案。
Next slide, please. The swirl case.
海星燃烧并消失，没有残留的燃烧余烬。在我的论文中报告的结果。对于不同气温下的其他涡流情况也是如此。现在来看看压力数据。我查看了计算机生成的图表。气缸压力上升，当活塞到达其行程末端并被锁定到位时保持相当恒定，然后图表再次急剧上升。
The starfish burned and disappeared, without the lingering, burning embers. A result to report in my thesis. Similarly for the other swirl cases at different air temperatures. Now to look at the pressure data. I looked at the computer-generated graphs. The cylinder pressure rose, stayed fairly constant as the piston reached the end of its travel and was locked in place, and then the graph steeply shot up again.
所有图表看起来都一样，并排放置。
All the graphs looked the same, sitting side by side.
该怎么办？三天后召开财团会议。我盯着他们所有人，寻找其中的规律。必须有一个模式。论文的第一个定义是通过论证提出和维持的命题。如果没有命题，就没有论文。如果没有论文，至少就没有硕士学位，当然也没有博士学位。对于计算机打印机生成的这些窄线，肯定还有更多要说的。该怎么办？
What to do? The consortium meeting is in three days. I stared at them all, looking for a pattern. There has to be a pattern. The first definition of thesis is a proposition advanced and maintained by argument. If there is no proposition there is no thesis. If there is no thesis there is at least no master's degree, and certainly no Ph.D. There must be something more to say about these narrow lines generated by a computer printer. What to do?
在透明胶片上追踪它们。
Trace them on transparencies.
好的，我会在透明塑料上追踪它们。怎么办？
Okay, I'll trace them on clear plastic. Now what?
用小箭头标记注射开始的位置。
Mark where the injection starts with a little arrow.
很容易。还有什么？
Easy enough. What else?
将透明胶片一张叠地堆放起来，然后将它们滑动，直到燃烧开始的陡峭部分在同一位置对齐。
Pile the transparencies one on top of the other, and slide them around until the steep part of the start of combustion lines up at the same place.
那平静的、细小的声音不在火中。
The still, small voice was not in the fire.
T+ 19,000 小时。我们有论文，休斯顿。我们有论文。任务控制中心鼓掌欢呼，工程师们互相拥抱、握手、拍拍彼此的背，抬头看着大屏幕电视，不止一双眼睛涌出泪水。鹰已着陆。
Tplus 19,000 hours. We have thesis, Houston. We have thesis. Mission Control clapped and cheered and the engineers hugged one another and shook one anothers' hands and patted one another on the back and looked up at the large-screen television and tears welled up in more than one pair of eyes. The Eagle has landed.
喷射开始和燃烧开始之间的时间（又称点火延迟时间）越长，图表的陡峭部分持续的时间越长。当然，仔细想想，这是显而易见的，因为点火延迟时间越长，混合的东西就越多，容易燃烧。更多容易燃烧的东西意味着燃烧会发生得更快，并且压力会上升得更快，因为火焰几乎立即吞噬了更容易燃烧的东西。
The longer the time between the start of injection and the start of combustion (a.k.a. the ignition delay time), the longer the steep part of the graph lasts. This, of course, is obvious if you think about it, because the longer the ignition delay time is, the more stuff is mixed to easy burnability. More stuff's being easily burnable means the burning will happen faster, and the pressure will rise faster as the flames engulf the more easily burnable stuff almost all at once.
这就是命题，我将能够通过对现有数据的进一步分析来构建论据。但有关燃烧的其他问题仍然存在。
That's the proposition, and I'll be able to construct the arguments with further analysis of the existing data. But other questions about the combustion lingered.
多少旋流才是好的旋流？我已经看到涡流可以很好地混合燃料，但是是否有一个点超过了添加更多涡流就不会再有任何好处了？这些实验的全局意义是什么？如果我为公共汽车设计发动机，重点是尽量减少每英里的污染吗？如果是这样，我是否会达到这样一个点：涡流流对气缸气体的冷却会降低发动机的功率，即使它减少了排放？也许有一定量的涡流可以完成混合，而不会通过气缸壁倾倒太多燃烧热量。要找到答案，需要更多的实验和对燃烧模型的更多理解。又进行了几年超越硕士水平的研究。佩里格林·怀特 (Peregrine White)，理学博士 它有一个很好的戒指。
How much swirl is good swirl? I've seen that swirl mixes the fuel well, but is there a point beyond which adding more swirl doesn't do you any more good? What is the global point of these experiments? If I were designing an engine for a bus, would the point be to minimize the pollution per mile? If so, would I reach a point where the cooling of the cylinder's gas from the swirl's flow decreases the power of the engine even though it reduces the emissions? Perhaps there's an amount of swirl that accomplishes the mixing without dumping too much of the combustion heat through the walls of the cylinder. To find answers will require more experiments and more understanding of combustion modeling. Another couple of years of research beyond the master's level. Peregrine White, Jr., Sc.D. It has a nice ring to it.
10 月 27 日
October 27
阿特金森。黛安正在二楼大厅打电话。“听着，米奇，如果你想要在四个星期内得到那个软件，你就会付出代价。你知道，我的人有习题集、实验室、考试和其他事情要做。他们需要时不时地睡觉。 ” 其他线路之一亮起。
Atkinson. Dianne was on the phone in the second floor hall. "Look, Mitch, if you want that piece of software in four weeks, it's going to cost you. My people have problem sets and labs and exams and other stuff to do, y'know. And they need to sleep now and then." One of the other lines lit up.
“我可以让你稍等一下吗？谢谢……”嗨，史蒂夫。说吧，我可以马上回复你吗？你比我们晚了三个小时，对吗？我会在六点钟之前给你回电话。再见。”在她挂断电话之前，第三行亮了起来。“比尔。伙伴。是的，它正在到来。说吧，我可以十点后给你回电话吗？谢谢。”
"Can I put you on hold for a minute? Thanks.... "Hi, Steve. Say, can I get right back to you? You're three hours behind us, right? I'll call back before six o'clock your time. Ciao." Before she hung up the third line lit up. "Bill. Buddy. Yeah, it's coming along. Say, can I call you back in ten? Thanks."
“所以，无论如何，米奇，我的人应该能够送货，但价格会很高，还有管理费用等等……成交了？太好了。我会让快递员把合同寄过去。”早上第一件事。”
"So, anyway, Mitch, my people should be able to deliver, but it's going to be at premium rates, and what with overhead and all. ... It's a deal? Great. I'll have a courier drop the contract by first thing in the morning."
等她挂断电话后，我说：“生意好像还不错。”
After she was off the phone, I said, "Business seems to be pretty good."
“是的，我就在那儿。比如说，我明天要去参加一个房地产介绍研讨会。你愿意加入吗？”
"Yeah, I'm hangin' in there. Say, I'm going to an introductionto-real-estate seminar tomorrow. Care to join me?"
“当然。”
"Sure."
第二天前往波士顿万豪酒店：
Next day on the way to the Boston Marriott:
“那么你是如何开始涉足软件行业的呢？” 我问。
"So how'd you get started in the software biz?" I asked.
“好吧，我十三岁时用保姆的钱买了一台苹果电脑，然后开始黑客攻击。你知道你是如何听到这些关于音乐家的故事的，以及当他们在高中时，所有很酷的人都在兼职的时候在商场里，他们在卧室里听唱片、背独奏、做音阶？嗯，我就是这样，只有电脑是我的乐器。有时候，我的母亲和继父担心我花了这么多时间独处我想，在我的房间里。
"Well, I bought an Apple with my baby-sitting money when I was thirteen and I began to hack. You know how you hear these stories about musicians and how when they're in high school and all the cool people are working part time at the mall'n stuff and they're in their bedroom listening to records and memorizing solos and doing scales? Well, I was like that, only the computer was my instrument. Sometimes my mother and stepfather worried about my spending so much time alone in my room, I think.
“所以，无论如何，这很有趣，我开始订阅杂志，并回答了一个自由软件人员的广告，并且我在高中时不断获得更多工作。当我来到这里大一时，我与我的客户保持联系，为了一个黑客，我把我的简历放在安置办公室的简历簿里。好吧，我谎报了我的年龄，假装我是一名大四学生，但他们从来没有检查过，所以大一的时候我飞到全国各地去安排旅行——你知道的，这些公司的面试——他们总是给我提供工作机会，但我会礼貌地拒绝，并递给他们我的名片，并说：“但是，如果您希望在合同基础上完成任何工作……”而不是高级之家, 4 Ames St., Atkinson 202，我将我的地址列为 4 Ames St., Mail Stop A202。一旦我表明我可以按时且按预算交付，这些人甚至不关心我住在哪里。我没有'我什至连一半的客户联系人都没有见过。这一切都是通过电话和联邦快递软盘邮寄的。”
"So, anyway, it was fun and I started subscribing to magazines and I answered an ad for a free-lance software person, and I just kept getting more work in high school. I kept up with my clients when I came here freshman year, and for a hack I put my resume in the placement office resume book. OK, I misrepresented my age and pretended I was a senior, but they never checked so freshman year I was flying around the country to plant trips-y'know, interviews at these companies-and they'd always make me job offers but I'd politely decline and hand them my business card and say, But if you'd like any work done on a contract basis ...' Instead of Senior House, 4 Ames St., Atkinson 202, I listed my address as 4 Ames St., Mail Stop A202. Once I show I can deliver on-time and on-budget these people don't even care where I live. I haven't even met half of my client contacts. It's all by phone and FedEx floppy disk mailers."
“你为什么想去参加房地产研讨会？听起来你已经做得很好了。”
"Why do you want to go to a real estate seminar? Sounds like you're doing really well already."
“税收快要了我的命。我得保护一些收入。此外，我的继父是个混蛋。我的意思是，他认为既然我赚了一些钱，他就不应该支付我的大学费用。我说我不应该“不要因为我的主动行动而受到惩罚。如果我在圣诞节回来告诉他我刚刚买了一座有二十个单元的公寓楼，这会让他很伤心。”
"Taxes are killing me. I gotta shelter some income. Besides, my stepfather is a jerk. I mean, he thinks that since I'm making a few bucks he shouldn't have to pay my college expenses. And I say I shouldn't be penalized for my initiative. It'd get him where it hurts if I come back at Christmas and tell him I just bought a twenty-unit apartment building."
Johnny Venture 站在万豪长码头会议室的前面说：“你想成为 Riiiich 吗？”
Johnny Venture stood at the front of the Marriott Long Wharf conference room and said, "You wanna be Riiiich?"
“是啊！” 两百多人说道。
"Yessss!" the crowd of over two hundred said.
“你想为生活做好准备！”
"You wanna be Set for Life!"
“是啊！”
"Yessss!"
“只要花七百五十美元和两天的时间，你就可以顺利实现财务独立。有人有任何疑问吗？”
"For seven hundred and fifty dollars and two days of your time you can be well on your way to financial independence. Does anyone have any questions?"
“是的，”黛安娜说。“我们可以不用首付就可以在五年内一次性支付大额付款吗？”
"Yes," Dianne said. "Can we take the course with no money down and a balloon payment in five years?"
在返回高级之家的路上，我问她是否愿意报名参加该课程。
On the way back to Senior House I asked her whether she would sign up for the course.
“我想我会报名参加，并带上耳塞和一个小记事本参加第一天早上的免费课程。当那个人解释折旧时，我会阅读课程活页夹并记下任何有用的提示。然后我会去去斯隆商学院图书馆进行后续阅读。我简直不敢相信其他人都这么傻。”
"I think I'll sign up for it and take earplugs and a little notepad to the complimentary first morning session. As the guy's explaining depreciation I'll read the course binder and make note of any helpful hints. Then I'll go to the Sloan B-school library for some follow-up reading. I can't believe what suckers the rest of these people are."
“哦，好吧，”我说。“好吧，当你打一个电话时，我给他们写了一张支票。”
"Oh. Right," I said. "Well, I wrote them a check when you made one of your phone calls."
10 月 30 日
October 30
财团会议。来自 Caterpillar 的澳大利亚人 Philip Hughes 问道：“图表上线条的宽度有什么意义吗？它与预期的实验误差有关吗？” 他指的是我的透明胶片。
Consortium meeting. Philip Hughes, the Aussie from Caterpillar, asked, "Is there any significance to the width of the lines on your graphs? Does it have to do with expected experimental error?" He was referring to my transparencies.
“这与我的魔笔的宽度有关，”我回答道。他们喜欢这个笑话并笑了。赞助商几乎成了同事、同事、朋友。
"It has to do with the width of my magic marker," I answered. They liked the joke and laughed. The sponsors had become almost colleagues, peers, friends.
菲尔继续说道，“你认为你可以滑动透明胶片，这样你就可以将指示喷射开始的箭头一个放在另一个的上面，而不是对齐燃烧的开始？”
Phil continued, "Do you suppose you could slide the transparencies so that, rather than lining up the start of combustion, you line up the arrows indicating start of injection one on top of the other?"
“当然，”我说。
"Sure," I said.
只要以稍微不同的方式看待事物就可以产生显着增强的洞察力。凯克教授是海伍德的同事，也是一位物理化学家和机械工程师，他立即认出了这种模式。
Just a slightly different way of looking at something can yield significantly amplified insight. Professor Keck, a colleague of Heywood's and as much a physical chemist as a mechanical engineer, recognized the pattern immediately.
“在我看来，”他说，“好像你可以将柴油燃烧分成两种不同的现象。一种是化学控制的几乎瞬时燃烧，其中压力上升的唯一限制是燃烧反应的速度，基于化学反应的指数分支，速度非常快。然后你就得到了混合控制的燃烧包络线，即顶部的曲线。这里的燃烧速率不能快于燃料和空气混合到所需的化学比例用于燃烧。”
"It looks to me," he said, "as if you can separate the diesel combustion into two distinct phenomena. There is the chemically controlled nearly instantaneous combustion, where the only limit on pressure rise is the speed of the combustion reaction, which, based on the exponential branching of the chemical reactions, is very fast. And then you have the mixing controlled combustion envelope, the curve on the top. Here the rate of combustion can be no faster than the fuel and air mix to the chemical proportions necessary for combustion."
凯克教授继续说道：“在较高温度的实验中，点火延迟时间较短，因此更多的燃烧是混合控制的。在较低温度的情况下，点火延迟时间较长，并且当但每种情况下的混合速率都接近相同，因此，当燃烧最终开始时，较长的点火延迟实验会立即赶上混合控制曲线。”
Professor Keck continued, "With your higher-temperature experiments, you have shorter ignition delays, and hence more of the combustion is mixing-controlled. In the lower-temperature cases, you have longer ignition delays, and more fuel is ready to go when combustion is initiated. But the mixing rate is close to the same in each case, so the longer ignition delay experiments instantaneously catch up with the mixing-controlled curve when combustion is finally initiated."
谢谢你，凯克教授。谢谢你，菲利普·休斯。你刚刚写了我论文的“结论”一章。当您提高发动机燃料和空气的温度时，燃料开始燃烧得更快。
Thank you, Professor Keck. Thank you, Philip Hughes. You just wrote the "Conclusions" chapter of my thesis. As you raise the temperature of the engine's fuel and air, the fuel starts to burn sooner.
11 月 15 日
November 15
“尼克，他们要带我飞往休斯敦。斯伦贝谢希望我下来参观一下工厂，”我告诉他。
"They're going to fly me to Houston, Nick. Schlumberger wants me to come down for a plant trip," I told him.
“嘿，队长，太棒了。恭喜你。几年前，实验室的一名学生去面试了他们。他说，这是一次非常艰难的面试。他们问了他各种各样的技术问题，比如如何Spahk 插头工作正常，他们甚至在下午进行了电子测试，”尼克回答道。
"Hey, Cap'n, that's great. Congratulations. One of the students from the lab went to interview with them a couple of years ago. A real tough interview, he said. They asked him all kinds of technical questions, like how does a spahk plug work, and they even gave an electronics test in the afternoon," Nick answered.
我想，我最好把去年夏天的笔记忘掉。我真的最好了解一下火花塞的工作原理。在这里，我在简历上告诉那个人我是乔柴油发动机，我在发动机实验室工作。如果我不知道火花塞的工作原理，那可就不太好了。
I'd probably better brush off my notes from last summer, I thought. And I'd really better find out how a spark plug works. Here I've told the guy I'm Joe Diesel Engine on my resume, and I work in an engine lab. It wouldn't look good for me not to know how a spark plug works.
“尼克，请问火花塞是如何工作的？”
"Say, Nick, how does a spark plug work?"
“快到黑板上来吧，船长，”他说。
"C'mon over to the blackboard, Cap'n," he said.
“看，heeyuh yuh 有电池，电压为 12 伏。它连接到这个变压器 heeyuh，点火线圈。然后你有接触断路器，这只是一个开关，在正确的时间打开和关闭。旋转的凸轮轴将其向上和向下推动。在变压器的次级侧，你有分配器的转子臂，当活塞位于正确的位置时，它使电流流向 spahk 插头。明白了吗？
"See, heeyuh yuh got the batt'ry, that's at 12 volts. An' that's connected to this transformuh heeyuh, the ignition coil. Then you got the contact breaker, that's just a switch that opens an' closes at the right time when the rotatin' cam shaft pushes it up an' down. On the secondary side of the transformuh, you got the distributor's rotor arm that makes the electric current go to the spahk plug when the piston's at the right place. Got it?"
“嗯。”
"Uh huh."
“很好。现在，当接触断路器闭合时，来自电池的电流会通过接触断路器回到地面。当它这样做时，它会在线圈的初级侧形成一个磁场。一旦磁场变得足够大， ，触点断路器再次打开，噗！初级侧的磁场崩溃了。电流被吸入电容器嘿哟，使次级磁场的电压大幅上升，达到20,000，甚至35,000伏。足够了伏特，使电流跳过 Spahk 插头的间隙，然后点燃发动机中的燃料。”
"Good. Now when the contact breaker closes, current from the batt'ry heeyuh goes through the contact breaker back to ground. When it does that, it stahts a magnetic field in the primary side of the coil. Once the field gets big enough, the contact breaker opens up again, and pow! The field in the primary side collapses. The current soughta gets sucked into the condensor heeyuh, and makes the volts in the secondary field go way up, to 20,000, even 35,000 volts. That's enough volts to make the current jump the gap in the spahk plug, an' it lights off the fuel in the engine."
它就像埃杰顿医生的闪光灯一样，只是威力稍弱一些。
It was just like Doc Edgerton's strobe light, only a little less powerful.
“这太棒了，尼克，”我说。“你介意我画一个小草图吗？”
"This is great, Nick," I said. "Do you mind if I make a little sketch of it?"
“Showah。把它放在一张小纸上，然后放进你的钱包里。也许有一天它会派上用场。”
"Showah. Put it on a little piece a paper an' put it in your wallet. It might come in handy someday."
11 月 17 日
November 17
那是飞往休斯敦的夜间航班，现在我知道了喷气发动机的工作原理，知道了静力学和 0 环、铆钉上的应力以及机翼在起飞前可以上下拍动多少次，所以飞机的感觉有所不同。掉下来了。但我没有时间坐公共汽车。
It was a night flight to Houston, and the airplane felt different now that I knew how jet engines worked, and I knew about statics and 0-rings and the stress on the rivets and how many times the wings could flap up and down before they fell off. But I didn't have time to take the bus.
我记得从布鲁塞尔陡峭地下降到波士顿。从那以后我改变了吗？我是米基奇教授所说的他们会让我成为的专业人士吗？坐在我旁边的两位商人讨论了希金斯退休后由谁来领导他们公司的阀门部门。最有可能的候选人有一座大房子和一个漂亮的妻子。
I remembered the steep descent into Boston from Brussels. Had I changed since then? Was I the professional that Professor Mikic said they would make me? The two businessmen in the seats beside me discussed who would head up the valve division of their company after Higgins retired. The most likely candidate had a big house and a pretty wife.
11 月 18 日
November 18
还有其他四位受访者，都来自好学校：普林斯顿大学、斯坦福大学、加州理工学院、圣母大学。其中两个看起来像足球运动员，这可能会给他们带来优势；在石油钻井平台上工作是一项艰苦的工作。我想知道我的学院风角框眼镜和细条纹西装是否会有所帮助或有害。
There were four other interviewees, all from good schools: Princeton, Stanford, Cal Polytech, Notre Dame. Two of them looked like football players, which might give them an edge; it's rough work, working on oil rigs. I wondered whether my preppy horn-rimmed glasses and pin-striped suit would help or hurt.
上午是关于工作的简报会。电影中，工作人员运行地球核心样本，一次钻探数十个小时，而年轻的、睡眠不足的现场工程师则在电脑上输入命令，并向甲板上的阿拉伯人发号施令。电影中，现场工程师在阿曼公司度假村休养两周，在泳池边放松聊天。看起来很令人兴奋。努力工作，赚大钱，五年后的生活——多么划算啊。我在西装外套口袋里的小笔记本里记下了一些笔记。
The morning was a briefing session about the job. Movies of crews running core samples of the earth, drilling for tens of hours at a time while the youthful, sleep-deprived field engineer no older than I punched commands into the computer and gave orders to the Arabian men on the deck. Movies of the field engineers relaxing and chatting next to the pool on their two weeks' recuperation at the company resort in Oman. It looked exciting. Hard work, good money, set for life in five years-what a deal. I jotted a few notes in the little notebook that fit in my suit jacket pocket.
整个早上没有任何评价，除了 Theunissen 和另一位面试官（一位拥有博士学位的英国人）这一事实。（也许他觉得自己失业了，我在我的小笔记本上记下了），当我们提出问题并试图表现出热情时，他们看起来都在打量我们，并在心里记下笔记。
The morning was nonevaluative, except for the fact that Theunissen and the other interviewer, a British guy with a Ph.D. (maybe he feels underemployed, I jotted in my little notebook), both looked as if they were sizing us up and taking mental notes as we asked questions and tried to look enthusiastic.
“现在，您认为现场工程师最大的事故来源是什么？” Theunissen 在第二部电影之后问道。这种危险一定会让他们很难雇用员工，即使他们有高薪。
"Now, what do you think the single largest source of accidents is for the field engineers?" Theunissen asked after the second movie. The danger must make it hard for them to hire people, even with the high money.
我建议说：“看起来这些装备上好像有很多重物。我想象偶尔会有什么东西落在某人的脚或脚踝上并压碎一些东西。” 我想，这似乎很合理。石油钻井平台不会每天都会爆炸。
I suggested, "It looks as if there's a lot of heavy stuff on those rigs. I'd imagine occasionally something lands on someone's foot or ankle and mashes something." It seemed plausible enough, I thought. Oil rigs don't blow up every day.
英国人记下了一张小纸条。特尤尼森说：“实际上，这是车祸；所以如果你是一个安全驾驶者，应该没问题。”
The British guy jotted down a little note. Theunissen said, "Actually, it's automobile accidents; so if you're a safe driver, you should be fine."
当然。您有得出该结论的报告副本吗？我可以浏览一下吗？
Sure. Do you have a copy of the report that came up with that conclusion? Could I glance through it for a second?
午餐时我们去了The Sagebrush。毕竟，这是休斯顿。我坐在英国人的黄色奔驰车的前座上，里面有棕色皮革内饰和电动门锁。
For lunch we went to The Sagebrush. This was, after all, Houston. I rode in the front seat of the British guy's yellow Mercedes with brown leather interior and electric door locks.
“你好，圣丹斯电影节，”特尤尼森对女服务员说。“我要和平常一样的酒；两杯血腥玛丽。” 然后他转身对我说：“点菜吧，喝光吧，这是石油工业的事。”
"Hello, Sundance," Theunissen said to the waitress. "I'll have the usual; two Bloody Marys." Then he turned my way and said, "Go ahead and order; drink up, it's on the oil industry."
“我要一杯橙汁，”我说。
"I'll have an orange juice," I said.
他的左眉毛高到了发际线。“什么？你不想喝点更烈的吗？”
His left eyebrow went up to his hairline. "What? Don't you want anything stronger?"
“我不喝酒。”我回答道。
"I don't drink," I answered.
斯坦福点了冰茶、普林斯顿牛奶、圣母姜汁汽水。我想知道他们是否不想喝酒，或者是否想在考试中保持敏锐。午饭后，在上车的路上，我在我的小本子上记下了一些笔记。
Stanford ordered iced tea, Princeton milk, Notre Dame ginger ale. I wondered whether it was because they didn't want to drink or whether they wanted to be sharp for the test. On the way to the car after lunch I jotted some notes on my little pad.
测试是小菜一碟，我花了几个小时的准备就完成了。这些都是暑期电子课程前两周的内容，再加上六点一十一的前十五分钟的一些内容。加州理工学院是双 E 成绩全 A 的学生，看起来特别想在半小时的测验中取得好成绩。
The test was a piece of cake, what with the couple of hours of preparing I'd done. It was all stuff from the first two weeks in the summer electronics course, plus a little stuff from the first fifteen minutes of six one eleven. Cal Polytech, a double E with straight A's, looked particularly intent on doing well on the half-hour quiz.
完成后十分钟，Theunissen 和那个英国人把它们还给了我们。满分十五分我得了十二分。加州理工学院有十一个，其他的都在十个以下。
Theunissen and the British guy handed them back ten minutes after we were done. I had twelve out of fifteen points. Cal Polytech had eleven, the others were all below ten.
哈。所以我毕竟不是一个傻瓜；只是在麻省理工学院，与周围的环境相比，你总是感觉自己很愚蠢。
Ha. So I'm not such a dummy after all; it's just that at MIT you always feel dumb by comparison to the environment.
现在是口试，最后是 Theu nissen 的面试。我已经准备好回答开头的问题了。他说：“现在，我想作为一个优秀的美国人，你拥有一辆汽车，作为一名优秀的工程师，你自己在这辆车上工作。你能告诉我火花塞是如何工作的吗？”
And now for the oral exam, the final interview with Theu nissen. I was ready for the lead-off question. He said, "Now, I suppose being a good American you own a car and being a good engineer you do your own work on it. Can you tell me how a spark plug works?"
我从钱包里拿出那张小纸片。“你知道吗，我听说这是你的问题之一。你介意我用笔记吗？”
I pulled the little sheet of paper out of my wallet. "You know, I heard that was one of your questions. Do you mind if I use notes?"
他的眉毛再次扬起。“谁给你的？其他哪一位候选人把它泄露给你的？”
His eyebrow soared again. "Who gave that to you? Which one of the other candidates leaked that to you?"
“真的，没有一个，”我回答道。“我实验室的技术人员告诉我，这是你们的标准面试问题。”
"None of them, really," I answered. "The technician in my lab told me it was a standard interview question for you guys."
“好吧，”他难以置信地说。“听着。我知道你是个聪明的孩子。我知道你能胜任这项工作。你想要这份工作吗？”
"Okay," he said incredulously. "Look. I know you're a smart kid. I know you can do the work. Do you want this job?"
我想知道是公司面试手册在说话还是特尤尼森本人在说话。
I wondered whether it were the corporate interview manual talking or Theunissen himself.
“我想要钱，”我回答。
"I want the money," I answered.
“你已经告诉过我了。我很欣赏你的诚实。但是你想要这份工作吗？如果你可以做任何你想做的事，你会做什么？”
"You already told me that. I appreciate your honesty. But do you want the job? What would you do if you could do anything you want?"
另一个有问题的问题。但要诚实回答。这是霍普金斯大学的迪安·胡克在我准备去参加罗德奖学金面试时告诉我的（我没有得到）。诚实地回答，说出你想到的第一件事，你就会脱颖而出。大多数人都会尝试告诉面试官他想听什么，而优秀的面试官可以在你这样做时看出。
Another loaded question. But answer honestly. That's what Dean Hooker at Hopkins told me when I was about to go to my interview for a Rhodes Scholarship (I didn't get it). Answer honestly, say the first thing that pops into your mind, and you'll stand out. Most people try to tell the interviewer what he wants to hear and a good interviewer can tell when you're doing that.
“嗯，你知道，我是一名环保主义者，我很欣赏你们所做的事情——我的意思是我有时也开车——但我真的很想致力于让管道的另一端，用户端，更高效。也许在工厂做一些咨询，发明一些更高效的产品。”
"Well, you know, I'm kind of an environmentalist, and I appreciate what you guys do-I mean I drive a car sometimes, too-but I'd really like to work on making the other end of the pipeline, the user end, more efficient. Maybe do some consulting in factories, invent some products that are more efficient."
似乎越来越多的是他，而不是面试手册。“那你为什么不现在就这么做呢？” 他问。
It seemed to be more and more of him, not the interview manual. "So why don't you do that now?" he asked.
“有积蓄很有帮助。我想我可以为你工作五年，看看世界，然后就这么做。”
"It helps to have a nest egg. I figure I could work for you five years, see the world, and then do that."
他回答说：“你知道，这本来是我的计划，但五年后，薪水很高，他们给了我巨额奖金让我进入管理层，所以我就来了。你对这份工作还有其他顾虑吗？”
He answered, "You know, that was my plan originally, but after five years, the pay was great and they offered me a huge bonus to move into management, so here I am. Do you have any other concerns about the job?"
“我多久能回家一次？我父亲病了，我希望在他离开我们之前每两年能见到他不止一次。”
"How often could I come home? My father's been ill, and I'd like to be able to see him more than once every two years before he leaves us."
特尤尼森对那个人只是微微扬起了眉毛。“我们公司每年可以送你一次回家。除此之外，你就得靠自己了。”
Theunissen raised his eyebrow only slightly on that one. "We can get you home once a year on the company. Beyond that you're on your own."
正确的。从罗利达勒姆 至 吉隆坡 的往返机票是多少？
Right. What's the round-trip airfare from Raleigh-Durham to Kuala Lumpur?
他继续说道：“好吧，我们可能会给你一个报价。祝你一路顺风回家。”
He continued, "Well, we'll probably make you an offer. Have a good flight home."
在去机场的出租车上，我把手伸进外套口袋，在小本子上做了一些进一步的记录。呃哦。我把它留在桌子上了。他们会找到它，将笔迹与测试进行比较，并了解我内心深处的想法和观察。
In the cab on the way to the airport, I reached into my coat pocket to make some further notes in my little pad. Uh oh. I left it on the table. They'll find it, compare the handwriting with the tests, and see my innermost thoughts and observations about them.
有时决定权不是你的。
Sometimes the decision is not yours.
章节
C H A P T E R
19
19
不，不是
No It Isn't
漩涡水流......（查尔斯）冷静的查尔斯涉水，感觉到从齐腰深的灰烬之前的冲突中醒来的新鲜水花的入侵，不知道它将如何结束。胸深，眼睛深，希望我有一个朋友，我所有的战斗都如此艰苦，我所有的努力都导致……归于……虚无……
Swirling Waters ... (the Charles) Cool Charles wading, senses invading fresh splashed wake from clashes before ashes waist deep now, don't know how it will end. chest deep, eye deep, wish I had a friend All my battles so hard fought, All my efforts lead ... to ... nought...
11 月 19 日
November 19
有人把这首诗钉在我公寓对面的墙上。我以为去年 12 月沃森事件让我获得了免费食宿。但是不！研究所的环境并没有松懈。
Somebody'd pinned the poem on the wall across from my apartment. And I thought I'd earned my free room and board last December with the Watson incident. But nooooo; the institute environment does not relent.
我给约翰·多尔西打了电话。“看看你是否能找出是谁把它放在那里的，”他说。“也尝试争取其他一些学生的帮助。”
I called John Dorsey. "See whether you can figure out who put it up there," he said. "Try to enlist the help of some of the other students, too."
楼下的大厅里正在进行杜松子酒游戏。埃尔登是四名球员之一。“我不知道我是否能熬过这个学期，”他说。
Downstairs the gin game was going on in the hall. Eldon was one of the four players. "I don't know whether I'm going to make it through the term," he said.
啊，嫌疑人。“为什么不？” 我问。
Ah, a suspect. "Why not?" I asked.
“我一直想成为一名宇航员。要成为一名任务专家，你需要博士学位，更不用说能够跑完 2 分 30 秒的马拉松了。但要从这里获得博士学位，我” “我需要的 A 多于 B，而我在两门课上力争 C，而我只是大二学生。如果我得到两个 C，那就是秋千或游泳，”他说。
"I've always wanted to be an astronaut. To be a mission specialist you need a Ph.D., not to mention being able to run a sub 2:30 marathon. But to get a Ph.D. from here I'll need more A's than B's and I'm pushing C's in two of my classes and I'm only a sophomore. If I get two C's, it'll be swing or swim," he said.
“你是什么意思？” 我问他（过去式。
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
“你知道吗，摇摆……” 他跳了起来，用一只手臂抓住了蒸汽加热管，整个人都软了，头软软地向前垂了下来。
"You know, swing . . ." and he jumped up and caught the steam heating pipe with one arm and let the rest of himself go limp and his head fall limply forward.
“你做得非常好，埃尔登。我仍然认为你应该打包工程并前往纽约进行一些试镜。”
"You do that really well, Eldon. I still think you should bag engineering and head to New York for some auditions."
“等等，我还没说完。”他强调道。“……或者游泳。” 他松开管子，俯卧在地板上，胳膊和腿伸直，就像在东河里那样。
"Wait, I'm not through," he said emphatically. "... or swim." He let go of the pipe and lay prone on the floor with his arms and legs stretched out the way they do in the East River.
是时候换个话题了。“你认为爱国者队能进入季后赛吗？”
Time to change the subject. "Do you think the Patriots will make it to the playoffs?"
“谁在乎？” 埃尔登说。“这是什么，国家非推论日还是什么？”
"Who cares?" Eldon said. "What is this, national non sequitur day or something?"
“是的，”辛迪说。“我一直在读一本关于抑郁症的书。书上说，每当人们以任何方式谈论自杀时，你都应该让他们谈论它。他们想要谈论它，就像他们在寻求帮助一样。”
"Yeah," Cindy said. "I've been reading a book about depression. It says that whenever people talk about suicide, in any way, you should let them talk about it. They want to talk about it, like, they're asking for help."
“好吧，”我说。“继续说吧，埃尔登。”
"Okay," I said. "Keep talking, Eldon."
“嗯，你知道有些杂志会宣传如何做到这一点。有书籍。有邮购套件。”
"Well, you know there are magazines that advertise how to do it. There are books. There are mail order kits."
我试图让他放心。“听着，你不能去找你的一位教授，让他帮助你更好地理解这些材料吗？你仍然可以从每门课中获得 B，并在下学期获得 A。”
I tried to reassure him. "Look, can't you go to one of your professors and have him help you understand the material better? You can still probably pull a B out of each of the classes and go for the A next term."
埃尔登回答说：“我试过了。但这家伙对他有这样的态度，就像他一直问我问题，而且他喜欢让我觉得自己很愚蠢。然后我去找另一位教授，同样的事情发生了。我想我会在两次罢工时停下来。这就像“如果你自己无法弄清楚，孩子，你就不属于这里。当你在那个满是大房间的中间时，没有人会牵着你的手”现实世界中的绘图台和计算机终端。”
Eldon answered, "I tried that. But the guy had this attitude about him, like he kept asking me questions, and it was like he enjoyed making me feel stupid. Then I went to another professor and the same thing happened. I figured I'd stop at two strikes. It's like 'If you can't figure it out for yourself, kid, you don't belong here. Nobody's going to take you by the hand when you're in the middle of that big room full of drafting tables and computer terminals in the real world.'"
“那首诗是你写的吗？” 我问他（过去式。
"Did you write that poem?" I asked him.
他演过凯瑟琳·赫本。“诗，什么诗？我不知道你在说什么……”
He did Katharine Hepburn. "Poem, what poem? I have no idea what you're talking about...."
“得了吧，施威心。承认吧。” 我回到转向架。
"Come on, Schweetheart. Admit it." I went back to Bogie.
“不，说实话，我不知道你在说什么。” 这不是埃尔登。
"No, seriously though, I don't know what you're talking about." It wasn't Eldon.
黛安娜走进她的房间，拿出一个尼龙套索。“我在大二那年捡到了这个作为黑客。我在愚人节那天带着它。真的吓坏了导师；他把它从我手中拿走了，并在年底归还给我。看看它。高-优质尼龙 - 它可能可以承载 500 磅。”
Dianne went into her room and brought out a nylon noose. "I picked this up as a hack my sophomore year. I carried it around on April Fools Day. Really freaked out the tutor; he took it away from me and gave it back at the end of the year. Just look at it. High-quality nylon-it'd probably carry 500 pounds."
埃尔登精神一振。“这样一来，我们两三个人就可以聚在一起，一起狂欢了。”
Eldon perked up. "With that, two or three of us could get together and have a gang hang."
“来吧，伙计们。让我们快乐起来。这个地方还不错，”我说。
"Come on, guys. Let's be happy. This place isn't so bad," I said.
“哦耶？” 埃尔登回答道。“好吧，我今天怎么样？我已经告诉过你，我已经在通往两个 C 的路上了。这是基于我今天回来的两次测试。两次测试都比班级平均分低 15 分。今晚我妈妈打电话来，她说说他们为我感到多么自豪，他们多么高兴我如此成功，以及在西尔斯之夜工作筹集学费是多么艰难，但这是值得的。然后在返回航空电子实验室的路上，我认识了三个人或者以为我知道在无限的走廊上没有打招呼；他们的眼睛只是向前看。”
"Oh, yeah?" Eldon answered. "Well, how about my day today? I already told you I'm well on my way to two C's. That was based on the two tests I got back today. Both were 15 points below class average. My mother called tonight and she said how proud they are of me and how happy they are I'm so successful and how it's rough working at Sears nights to pull together the money for tuition but it's worth it. Then on the way back to the avionics lab three people I knew or thought I knew on the infinite corridor didn't say hi; their eyes were just beaming forward."
“他们可能只是专注于解决一些问题或其他事情，”我说。“我们都有糟糕的日子。”
"They were probably just preoccupied with some problem set or something," I said. "We all have bad days."
“是的，我想你是对的，”埃尔登说。“但有时感觉麻省理工学院是一条我必须杀死的巨龙。”
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Eldon said. "But sometimes it feels like MIT is a dragon I have to slay."
11 月 22 日
November 22
这次导师会议是为了准备一部关于被核武器袭击的电视电影《后天》。
The tutor meeting was to prepare for "The Day After," the madefor-TV film about being nuked.
“现在我希望大家在播出后留意任何警告信号，”约翰·多尔西说。“你可能想成立某种讨论小组来讨论这个问题。让学生们讨论一下。这部电影包含可能令人反感的材料。建议观众谨慎行事。该研究所担心这可能会让人们感到沮丧，可能会出现大规模的暴力事件。”自杀。我们必须采取措施防止这种情况发生。”
"Now I want you all to be on the lookout for any warning signs after it's aired," John Dorsey said. "You might want to have some kind of discussion group about it. Let the students talk through it. The film contains material that may be offensive. Viewer discretion is advised. The institute is worried that it might depress people, that there may be mass suicide. We have to take steps to prevent that."
我整个晚上都在看电影，而不是看电视。从学生中心图书馆回来的路上，无限长的走廊上上下下都有指示牌。为什么没有希望？一个说。为什么该机构毫无希望？我想知道这是否是某人想出的一个恶心的笑话，一种将读者推入危及生命的抑郁症的方式。我把我能拿到手的所有东西都撕下来了。
I spent the evening of the movie reading, not watching TV. On the way back from the student center library, there were signs up and down the infinite corridor. WHY IS THERE No HOPE? one said. WHY IS THE INSTITUTE HOPELESS? I wondered whether it was somebody's idea of a sick joke, a way to push the reader into a life-threatening depression. I ripped down every one I could put my hands on.
电影结束后我举办了一场牛奶和饼干休息会。“没那么好，”黛安娜说。“角色发展根本不存在。”
I hosted a milk and cookies break after the movie. "It wasn't that great," Dianne said. "The character development just wasn't there."
“是的，”埃尔登说。“特效完全是假的。如果他们想要真正有效，他们应该展示广岛和长崎的真实电影。当真实的事情发生时，破坏将比他们在电影中展示的要严重得多。”
"Yeah," Eldon said. "And the special effects were like totally fakey. If they wanted to be really effective they should have shown the real films from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the real thing happens the destruction will be a lot worse than they showed in that movie."
“会，埃尔登，会。在谈论这类事情时总是使用条件句。”
"Would, Eldon, would. Always use the conditional when talking about these kinds of things."
11 月 23 日
November 23
学生报纸《科技报》刊登了一篇关于黑人女性迪恩·霍普被解雇的报道。这解释了这些迹象。
The Tech, the student newspaper, ran a story about the firing of Dean Hope, a black woman. That explained the signs.
11 月 24 日
November 24
我和我的同事正在讲黄色笑话。大厅的门开着。有时你会忘记实验室里也有女性。你所说的话可能会杀死某人。但这些笑话很有趣，当其他人嘲笑我的时候，我感觉自己就像其中一员。谈话转向了对实验室以及机甲 E 部门中各个女性的外貌进行排名。女人在一起的时候都会做这种事吧？这很自然，对吧？
My office mates and I were telling dirty jokes. The door to the hall was open. Sometimes you forget that women are in the lab, too; that what you say might kill someone. But the jokes were funny, and I felt like one of the guys when the other guys laughed at mine. The conversation drifted toward ranking the looks of the various women in the lab, and in the Mech E department in general. Women do this kind of thing when they're together, right? It's natural, right?
其中一个人说：“是啊，玛丽的身材很好，但她的脸没那么好看。” 我们都有点笑了。她走过开着的门，没有朝里看。我不知道她是否听到了。这是我最后一次见到她。
One of the guys said, "Yeah, Mary's got a nice body but her face isn't that great." We all sort of chuckled. She walked by the open door, didn't look in. I wondered whether she heard it. It was the last time I saw her.
我不知道她为什么这么做。谁知道这是否是最后一条小评论？谁知道是不是我没有为她辩护呢？从第一个学期开始我们就有点疏远了。我会打招呼，她会给我那种高级之家强迫性的微笑，这实际上是对微笑的模仿，因为在这个地方怎么可能有人快乐呢？但她在户外俱乐部有朋友，而且有传言说她有男朋友，所以我没有责任问她为什么不再和我说话了。我们是自己灵魂的主人，对吗？这不是我的错。这不是我的错。这不是我的错，是吗？
I don't know why she did it. Who knows whether it was that last little comment? Who knows whether it was the fact that I didn't say anything in her defense? We'd sort of drifted apart since the first term. I'd say hello and she'd give me that Senior House forced smile that is really a parody on a smile because how could anyone possibly be happy at this place? But she had her friends in the outdoors club and rumor had it she had a boyfriend, so it wasn't my responsibility to ask her why she wasn't talking to me much anymore. We're the masters of our souls, right? It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault, was it?
这不是压力。她太聪明了，不会这么做。也许这就是孤独吧。但她有男朋友。也许这是麻省理工学院过度机械化的世界观所引发的绝望，在这种世界观中，逻辑和理性是神，灵性、灵魂和人性充其量被视为无关紧要，最坏的情况是不存在。
It wasn't the pressure. She was too smart to let that do it. Maybe it was the loneliness. But she had a boyfriend. Perhaps it was the hopelessness spurred on by MIT's overmechanistic worldview, in which logic and reason are gods and spirituality, soul, and humanity are dismissed as irrelevant at best and nonexistent at worst.
第二天早上，切特邀请我去他的办公室。他关上了我身后的门。
The following morning Chet asked me into his office. He closed the door behind me.
“坐吧，”他说。“我有一些非常坏的消息。昨晚玛丽结束了自己的生命。”
"Have a seat," he said. "I've got some very bad news. Last night Mary took her own life."
她把它带到哪里去了？
Where'd she take it?
不过实话说。“怎么……怎么……？” 我问。
But seriously. "How'd ... How'd ... ?" I asked.
“今天早上他们在她的雪佛兰车里发现了她。我已经和每个人核实过。校园警察、她的房东、剑桥警察、院长办公室。我不断听到同样的故事，但我不敢相信它发生了。这是玛丽，好吧，”切特回答道。他的眼睛眨了一下。“她把一些管子从车尾管插入乘客区。她把车停在奥尔巴尼街。然后她就睡着了。”
"They found her in her Chevette this morning. I've checked with everyone. Campus police, her landlord, Cambridge police, the dean's office. I keep getting the same story, but I can't believe it happened. It's Mary all right," Chet answered. His eyes blinked a little. "She put some tubing from the tail pipe of her car into the passenger section. She was parked over on Albany Street. And she just sort of fell asleep."
让我们看看，我想知道。如果汽车以 800 rpm 的转速怠速运转，排量为 2 升，则进入汽车的体积流量将为每分钟 400 升，乘以废气中一氧化碳的百分比。我们必须为汽车乘客部分的一氧化碳浓度建立一个微分方程，假设流入速率和排气速率相等。这有点像填充一个漏水的刚性气球，另一端有一个洞。我们必须对乘客的呼吸频率做出另一个假设。计算 2 升肺活量和每分钟 20 次呼吸，这意味着乘客舱每分钟需要 40 升气体。现在为了模拟肺部吸收一氧化碳的速率，我们需要......
Let's see, I wondered. If the car is idling at, say 800 rpm, and the displacement is, say, 2 liters, then the volume flow rate into the car will be 400 liters per minute, times the percentage of carbon monoxide in the exhaust gas. We'll have to set up a differential equation for the concentration of carbon monoxide in the passenger section of the car, assuming equal inflow rates and exhaust rates. It's sort of like filling up a leaky rigid balloon with a hole in the other end. We'll have to make another assumption about the breathing rate of the passenger. Figure a 2-liter lung capacity and 20 breaths per minute, that means 40 liters per minute of passenger compartment gas. Now to model the rate of carbon monoxide uptake into the lungs we need to ...
内达勒特。玛丽的声音几乎听得见，就像在热课上，当有人的手表在整点响起时，她说“Nedalert”。就是这样。我受够了。他们抓住了我。
Nerdalert. Mary's voice was almost audible, like the time she said, "Nerdalert" when somebody's watch beeped at the top of the hour in Thermo class. That's it. I'm done. They've got me.
我胃里的结绷紧了。我也不敢相信。当你二十六岁的时候，你可能听说过死亡，也许失去了一些宠物，但如果你的父母都还活着，而且你真正熟悉的人都没有去世，你仍然会觉得对它免疫。
The knot in my stomach tightened. I couldn't believe it, either. By the time you're twenty-six you may have heard of death, maybe lost a few pets, but if both your parents are still alive and no one you know really well has passed away, you still feel kind of immune to it.
“追悼会将于下周日晚上在教堂举行，”切特说，“在教堂里。嘿，孩子，顺便说一句，我对你的工作提出了批评，但原因是为了帮助你学习，这样你就可以出去“在这里，你能够胜任并完成人们对拥有麻省理工学院学位的人所期望的良好专业工作。你的实验技术确实很出色。你很擅长解决问题。”
"The memorial service will be next Sunday night," Chet said, "in the chapel. Hey, kiddo, by the way, I've had my criticisms of your work, but the reason is to help you learn so you can go out of here and be competent and do the good professional work that people expect out of people with MIT degrees. You've really come along in your experimental techniques. You're good at solving problems."
他称赞了我。我简直不敢相信。切特称赞了我。他所说的一定是真的，因为切特无法说谎，即使是在胁迫下。
He paid me a compliment. I couldn't believe it. Chet paid me a compliment. And what he said must be true, because Chet is incapable of lying, even under duress.
我下楼去拿了一些宝丽来照片，用于我论文的仪器部分。尼克在钻床上。
I went downstairs to take some Polaroids for the apparatus section of my thesis. Nick was at the drill press.
广播中播放着比莉·哈乐黛的版本“What's New?”。
"What's New?"-the Billie Holiday version-played on the radio.
尼克把手放在我的肩膀上说：“发生了一件可怕的事情，真的是一件可怕的事情。永远不要让这样的事情发生在你身上，好吗，船长？主只是希望你继续这样做”尽你所能；这才是最重要的。你会经历一些糟糕的时光，但你会挺过去的。这一切发生得太快了。”
Nick put his hand on my shoulder and said, "That's a terrible thing that happened, just a terrible thing. Don't ever let anything like that happen to you, OK, Cap'n? The Lord just wants you to keep doin' the best you can; that's all that matters. You'll have some bad times but you'll make it through. It happens too fast by itself."
我当时没有哭。我很坚强；我可以接受。我可以接受研究所提供的任何东西。我把宝丽来照片交给了夏洛特·埃文斯；她帮我打论文并帮助我计算数据，每页收费 3 美元。她也刚刚从切特那里听到了这个消息。
I didn't cry then. I was tough; I could take it. I could take anything the institute could dish out. I delivered the Polaroids to Charlotte Evans; she was typing my thesis for me and helping with the figures for $3 a page. She had just heard the news from Chet as well.
“可怜的东西，”她在办公桌后面说道。“我感觉很糟糕。你知道她为什么这么做吗？”
"The poor thing," she said from behind her desk. "I feel just awful about it. Do you have any idea why she did it?"
“不，不是真的。我们最近没怎么说话。我现在感觉有点糟糕，好像我应该问她是否有什么事情困扰着她。但我们渐行渐远，现在我们再也不会回到一起了，不是在这里。”反正。”
"No, not really. We didn't talk a lot recently. I feel kind of bad now, like I should have asked her whether something was bothering her. But we drifted apart and now we'll never drift back together, not here anyway."
夏洛特安慰道：“现在你别再责怪自己了。每个人都要为自己的行为负责，而不是别人的行为。再说了，每年的这个时候，很多人都会过得很艰难，比如圣诞节快到了。”这些天你无法接近精神科医生，他们的预约非常多。圣诞节和春天，很多人都会感到沮丧，尤其是单身人士。”
Charlotte said comfortingly, "Now don't you go blaming your self. Everyone is responsible for his own actions and no one else's. Besides, a lot of people have a hard time this time of year, what with Christmas coming up and all. You can't get near a psychiatrist these days they're so heavily booked. Christmastime and springtime, a lot of people get depressed, especially if they're single."
我举起手说：“有罪。” 我想知道她怎么知道很难安排时间去看精神科医生。
I raised my hand and said, "Guilty." I wondered how she knew it was hard to schedule time with a psychiatrist.
夏洛特开始谈正事。“所以我输入了实验的介绍和描述。我还输入了实验室照片的空白标题。这是手稿供您阅读和证明。” 她递给我完整的马尼拉文件夹。
Charlotte got down to business. "So I've typed the introduction and the description of the experiment. And I've typed the blank headings for the photos of the lab. Here's the manuscript for you to read through and proof." She handed me the full manila folder.
“谢谢，夏洛特。我几乎能尝到切特的签名了。”
"Thanks, Charlotte. I can almost taste Chet's signature."
“没问题。八十一美元。如果你有的话，我更喜欢现金。”
"No problem. That'll be eighty-one dollars. I'd prefer cash if you have it."
“我得去趟银行。五点前回来。”
"I'll have to go to the bank. I'll be back by five."
“很好，”我离开办公室时她说。“还有佩珀，”她补充道，“不要工作太辛苦。”
"Good," she said as I left the office. "And Pepper," she added, "don't work too hard."
“没有这样的……”我从我的标准回答中停了下来。“呃，好吧。我会尽量不这样做。”
"There's no such...." I paused from my standard response. "Uh, OK. I'll try not to."
三天后。两个看起来有点像玛丽的女人，只是年龄更大，她们在我家门口附近的走廊里看起来迷失了方向。我记得在我家门附近的走廊里迷失了方向。她们可能是我的姐姐。他们的眼睛仍然是红色的。
Three days later. Two women who looked a little like Mary, only older, looked lost in the corridor near my door. I remembered feeling lost in the corridor near my door. They could have been my older sisters. Their eyes were still red.
“你……你知道我们怎样才能进入这个办公室吗？” 年长的问道。“玛丽·帕特森是我们的妹妹，我们是来检查她的物品的。”
"Do ... do you know how we can get into this office?" the older one asked. "Mary Patterson was our younger sister, and we've come to go through her belongings."
“呃，哎呀，我不知道。我可以跑下楼去实验室看看她的同事是否在附近。” 他们不是。
"Uh, gee, I don't know. I can run downstairs to the lab to see whether any of her office mates are around." They weren't.
“我给校园警察打电话，他们可以来给你开门，”我说。“顺便说一句，我叫白胡椒。”
"Let me call campus police and they can come and open up the door for you," I said. "By the way, my name's Pepper White."
“哦，原来你是佩珀，”年长的说。“玛丽谈了很多关于你的事；她说她真的很喜欢你，还告诉我们你做过的一些事情。”
"Oh, so you're Pepper," the older one said. "Mary talked a lot about you; she said she really liked you, and she told us about some of the things you'd done."
这是什么，“生活多美好”主题的变体？听着，我感觉很糟糕，因为我不知道她把我当作好朋友，即使她没有向我打招呼。这个地方是一个盐矿，除了开采盐之外没有时间做任何事，更不用说试图拉住一个在阿卡普尔科度假时给我寄来一张明信片并署名“爱你，玛丽”的人，她给了我笔记的原件两年前我错过了热和流体课程，并为自己复印了一份，她出于抑郁症与我出去约会了几次。这不是我的错，是吗？
What is this, a variation on the It's a Wonderful Life theme? Look, I feel bad enough as it is without knowing that she thought of me as a good friend even when she didn't say hello to me. This place is a salt mine and there's no time to do anything but mine salt, much less try to pull someone who sent me a postcard from her vacation in Acapulco and signed it "Love, Mary," who gave me the originals for the notes for the Thermo and Fluids classes I missed two years ago and made photocopies for herself, who went out on a couple of dates with me, out of a depression. It wasn't my fault, was it?
我说：“呃，是的。我们都非常想念她。”
I said, "Uh, yeah. We all miss her very much."
“我们的父亲是一位物理学家，”她说。“我们想翻阅她的笔记本，向他展示一些她正在做的事情的例子。,,
"Our father's a physicist," she said. "We'd like to go through her notebooks to give him some examples of what she was working on.,,
校园警察赶到并打开了门。我们把他们从 U-Haul 取来的纸板箱组装起来，装满玛丽的笔记本，然后把它们搬到租来的货车上。
The campus policeman arrived and opened the door. We assembled the cardboard boxes they'd picked up from U-Haul, filled them with Mary's notebooks, carried them to the rented van.
“那鱼缸呢？” 我问他们。
"What about the fish tank?" I asked them.
“我们暂时就这样吧，”姐姐说。“你能确保有人喂鱼并清洁过滤器几周吗？”
"We'll leave it for now," the older sister said. "Could you make sure someone feeds the fish and cleans the filter for a couple of weeks?"
“当然，”我说。“呃，我……对发生的事情感到非常抱歉。祝你一路平安回家。”
"Sure," I said. "Say, I'm uh . . . really sorry about what happened. Have a safe drive home."
“谢谢再见。”
"Thanks. Bye."
那晚。本和玛丽办公室的收音机大声播放着 WBCN 的摇滚音乐，办公室的门开着。
That night. The radio in Ben and Mary's office played loud rock music from WBCN and the office door was open.
“哟，本。你能把声音调小一点吗？” 我问他（过去式。
"Yo, Ben. Could you turn that down a little bit?" I asked him.
“嗯？” 他说，从他的问题集中抬起头来。“哦。是的。当然。抱歉，声音这么大。我想我想避开这个地区可能出现的任何邪灵；我的意思是，现在玛丽走了，深夜这里有点怪异。每次我走路走进办公室，我以为会在办公桌前看到她，或者朝相反的方向走去，但她已经不在了。我仍然不敢相信这一切发生了。唯一剩下的就是鱼缸。我想知道鱼是否知道里面有什么继续，”他说。
"Huh?" he said, looking up from his problem set. "Oh. Yeah. Sure. Sorry it's so loud. I guess I want to sort of ward off any evil spirits that might be in the area; I mean it's kind of spooky here late at night now with Mary gone. Every time I walk into the office, I expect to see her at her desk or walking the other way, and she's never there anymore. I still can't believe it happened. The only thing that's left is the fish tank. I wonder whether the fish know what's going on," he said.
“哦，这让我想起了。你知道她把那盒鱼食放在哪里吗？我答应过她的家人，我会照顾他们一段时间。”我说。
"Oh, that reminds me. Do you know where she kept the box of fish food? I promised her family I'd take care of them for a while," I said.
我们俩把食物撒在水面上，鱼儿就跑到水面上吃东西。
We both sprinkled the food on the water and the fish scurried up to the surface to eat.
本继续说道。“就像我试图想象她的痛苦，你知道，她的感受是什么，是什么让她这么做。她也很聪明。这是最可怕的事情。她每天都读《纽约时报》，知道关于什么的一切。世界上所有这些小国家都在发生这种事。我想知道她是否知道一些我们不知道的事情。”
Ben continued. "It's like I'm trying to imagine her pain, you know, how she felt, what made her do it. She was so smart, too. That's the scariest thing. She read the New York Times every day, knew everything about what was going on in all these little countries around the world. It's like I wonder whether she knew something we don't know."
我回答说：“谁知道呢，也许我们会在夜班时再次见到她，我们就能问她。现在已经过了我的睡觉时间了。如果你想把收音机调回来，那就继续吧。”
I answered, "Who knows, maybe we'll see her again on the night shift and we'll be able to ask her. For now it's past my bedtime. If you want to turn the radio back up, go ahead."
“谢谢，”他说。“别紧张。”
"Thanks," he said. "Take it easy."
睡觉前，我从高级之家的文件柜中取出布告栏上的手写诗，并将笔迹与玛丽给我的第一学期液体笔记进行比较。笔记本上的字迹与墙上的字迹不符。这不是她的，但又是谁的呢？
Before bed I took the bulletin board's handwritten poem out of my filing cabinet at Senior House and compared the handwriting to the first-semester Fluids notes that Mary gave me. The handwriting in the notebook didn't match the handwriting on the wall. It wasn't hers, but whose was it?
我躺在床上，听着收音机里播放的“Soft Hits”，渐渐进入了梦乡。
I lay in bed with "Soft Hits" playing on the radio and gradually drifted off to sleep.
那是晚上，玛丽站在教堂前，克雷斯吉和学生中心对面。
It was night and Mary was standing in front of the chapel, across from Kresge and the student center.
“嗨，佩珀，”她说。
"Hi, Pepper," she said.
“嗨，玛丽。有什么新鲜事吗？”
"Hi, Mary. What's new?"
“哦，不多，你呢？” 她说。
"Oh, not much, how about you?" she said.
“我也是。哎呀。你一点也没变。”
"Me neither. Gee. You haven't changed a bit."
“你是什么意思？” 她朝我伸手问道。
"What do you mean?" she asked, reaching toward me.
“等一下，”我回答道。“你死定了。”
"Wait a minute," I answered. "You're dead."
“嗯？哦。是的。当然。再见……”
"Huh? Oh. Yeah. Sure. Adieu...."
当斯波克先生和柯克船长被传送到企业号星舰时，她闪烁了一会儿就消失了。
And as when Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk are beamed up to the Starship Enterprise, she shimmered for a few moments and disappeared.
我的头从枕头上猛地抬起来。琳达·朗斯塔特 (Linda Ronstadt) 与纳尔逊·里德尔 (Nelson Riddle) 管弦乐团一起演唱了这首轻柔的歌曲：
My head jerked up from the pillow. Linda Ronstadt sang the soft hit with the Nelson Riddle orchestra:
...但是见到你真是太棒了，而且你很贴心，愿意伸出你的手...
... but seeing you is grand, and you were sweet, to offer your hand ...
章节
C H A P T E R
20
20
质量控制
Quality Control
“风随意思吹，你听见风的声音，却不知道从哪里来，到哪里去……”
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.... ..
——约翰福音 3:8
-JOHN 3:8
“……风……哭泣……玛丽”
"... and the wind . . . cries . . . Mary"
-,IIMI
-,IIMI
12月18日
December 18
我请海伍德教授推荐我参加博士资格考试。
I asked Professor Heywood to recommend me for the doctoral qualifying exams.
“嗯，”他说。“你想用博士学位做什么？-
"Hmmm," he said. "And just what is it that you'd like to do with a Ph.D.?-
我的朋友们可以叫我胡椒博士。此外，考试应该成为本书中非常好的章节。
My friends could call me Dr. Pepper. Besides, the exams should make for a really good chapter in the book.
“我想咨询。我想就如何节约能源向行业提供建议。这就是我来到这里的原因，我认为博士学位会有所帮助，”我回答道。“这会给我一定的可信度。”
"I want to consult. I want to advise industry on how to save energy. That's why I came here in the first place, and I think the Ph.D. would help," I answered. "It would give me a certain credibility."
“是的，会的，”他说。“但对于你想做的事情来说，这可能并不是真正必要的。事实上，对你来说，现在进入工业界，看看现实世界中的事情是如何运作的，可能会更有利。你三年或更长时间”花在博士学位上的费用就会涉及到机会成本。”
"Yes, it would," he said. "But it may not really be necessary for what you want to do. In fact, it may be much more advan tageous for you to go out into industry now and see how things work in the real world. The three years or more you'd spend on a Ph.D. would involve that opportunity cost."
“我不知道；我现在仍然想尝试一下预选赛。如果我现在不尝试，我永远不会参加。此外，你必须承认这将是一个很好的机会来回顾一下什么我在这里学到了。”
"I don't know; I'd still like to give the qualifiers a shot now. If I don't try now, I'll never do them. Besides, you have to admit it would be a great opportunity to review what I've learned here."
“你的成绩怎么样？”
"How are your grades?"
“呃，呃，我，呃......好吧，我有三个C，两个A，其余的B。但是其中两个C是我的第一个学期，第三个是在夏季电子课程中，所以他们不应该真的应该算吧？”
"Uh, er, I, uh ... well, I have three C's, two A's, and the rest B's. But two of the C's were my first term and the third was in a summer electronics class so they shouldn't really count, should they?"
“一切都很重要。你将受到两次打击。但如果你真的想这样做，我会写这封信。你必须在口头、书面和演示方面做得非常好考试了，所以我建议你好好准备。”
"Everything counts. You'll be going in with two strikes against you. But if you really want to do it, I'll write the letter. You'll have to do remarkably well on the oral, written, and presentation components of the examinations, so I advise you to prepare well."
“谢谢您，教授。”
"Thank you, Professor."
那天下午，切特摇了摇头。
That afternoon, Chet shook his head.
“你真的想经历这一切吗？” 他问。
"You really want to go through with it?" he asked.
“是的，切特。我必须尝试。我知道这是一个渺茫的机会，但该死的，这是美国，我们喜欢失败者，我们喜欢成为失败者。我整个月都会哼着《洛基主题曲》。 ”
"Yeah, Chet. I have to try. I know it's a long shot, but darn it this is America and we love an underdog, and we love to be underdogs. I'll be humming the 'Theme from Rocky' all month."
“好吧，我会在你的申请表上签字。不过要小心。好好学习，知道自己在说什么，否则他们会把你活活吃掉。”
"Well, I'll sign your application. But be careful. Study hard, and know what you're talking about; otherwise they'll eat you alive. "
“好吧，切特。我会尽力的。”
"Okay, Chet. I'll do my best."
限定词是他们在研究生和被称为“某某博士”之间设置的障碍。考试的存在有几个原因。首先，他们给了教授们性格中的虐待狂元素一个表达自己的机会。其次，他们将研究生群体中的谷壳与麦子分开。你看，如果让大家都轻松通过的话，更多的无能者就会被称为“某某医生”。如果他们让任何人通过，他或她可能会完成博士学位，顺利地通过普林斯顿大学或斯坦福大学助理教授的面试，并且在教授热力学概论时，被某个聪明的十九岁孩子活活吃掉。这比被麻省理工学院的一些教授活活吃掉更具破坏性，所以这种残忍是仁慈的。
The qualifiers are the barrier they put between graduate students and the ability to be called "Doctor So and So." The examinations exist for several reasons. First, they give the sadistic elements of the professors' characters an opportunity to express themselves. Second, they separate the chaff from the wheat of the graduate student body. See, if they made it easy for everyone to pass, more incompetents would be called "Doctor So and So." If they let anyone pass, he or she might finish a Ph.D., glibly sleaze through an interview for an assistant professorship at Princeton or Stanford, and, when teaching Intro Thermodynamics, be eaten alive by some bright nineteen-year-old. And that would be more devastating than being eaten alive by some MIT professors, so the cruelty is kind.
考试分为四个方面。周五是写作部分。四个专业领域各进行一小时的测试。每个学生在测试科目上都有一些选择，我选择了基础知识：流体、热、系统动力学和控制以及力学。然后周末就到了，让你流汗。我的意思是，我宁愿周一、周二、周三都这样，然后你消失去滑雪，看看你是否通过了，但这是他们的比赛，他们制定规则。
The examinations are in four areas. Friday is the written section. One hour of testing in each of four areas of specialization. Each student has some choices in the test subjects, and I chose the basics: Fluids, Thermo, System Dynamics and Controls, and Mechanics. Then the weekend comes just to make you sweat. I mean, I'd rather have it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then you disappear and go skiing and find out whether you passed, but it's their ballgame and they make the rules.
周一他们会对您进行口头检查。他们给你带来了一个问题；你有二十分钟的时间来查看它并尝试解决它，或者至少想出一些关于它的内容，然后你用二十分钟的时间提出你的解决方案和/或回答他们的问题。为了防止作弊，四十分钟的时间是连续的，不允许有时间从一个房间到另一个房间。因此，你从一个考场跑到另一个考场，以尽可能多地利用二十分钟的准备时间。
On Monday they examine you orally. They present you with a problem; you have twenty minutes to look at it and try to solve it or at least think up something to say about it, and then you present your solution and/or answer their questions for twenty minutes. To discourage cheating, the forty-minute periods are consecutive, with no time allowed to go from one room to the other. Thus you run from examination room to examination room, to have as much of the twenty minutes of preparation time as possible.
周二，您将展示您迄今为止的研究工作。这使他们能够评估您是否能够“进行研究”。
And on Tuesday, you present your research work to date. This enables them to evaluate whether you are able to "do research."
12月31日
December 31
还有二十天就到了。除夕。斯隆实验室里除了董先生和董太太之外没有人，这对中国夫妇穿过大厅，他们在电炉上煮着难闻的海藻。他们的除夕夜是二月。
Twenty days to go. New Year's Eve. No one in the Sloan Lab except Mr. and Mrs. Tung, the Chinese couple across the hall with the foul-smelling seaweed they cooked on their hot plate. Their New Year's Eve was in February.
独奏。事情就这样结束了。靠你自己。自己做。单独解决问题集。单独与牛顿，与拉格朗日。单独与教科书的作者在一起。模式识别，没有时间深入研究问题，而是从已制定的解决方案集中尽可能多地获取技巧。尝试问题；卡住了。查看解决方案集以获取提示。继续。再次卡住。再次查看解决方案集。
Solo. This is how it ends. By yourself. Do it yourself. Plow through the problem sets alone. Alone with Newton, with Lagrange. Alone with the authors of the textbooks. Pattern recognition, no time to look deep into the problems, just time to pick up as many tricks from worked-out solution sets as possible. Try problem; get stuck. Look at solution set for hint. Continue. Get stuck again. Look at solution set again.
当解决第二个或第三个相同类型的问题时，模式就变得更加清晰。然后你希望预选赛的问题将包括你已经内化的技巧。
By the second or third of the same type of problem the pattern becomes clearer. And then you hope the problem on the qualifiers will include the trick you have internalized.
10时30分，连董先生、佟太太也离开了。唯一剩下的噪音是玛丽的鱼缸里的过滤器从她办公室锁着的门里传来的声音。返回高级之家的路上，学院里空无一人。这条无边无际的走廊通常全天都挤满了人，但现在 319 步内却空无一人。其他所有走廊也是如此。只有书呆子中的书呆子在除夕夜11点30分学习。
At 10:30 even Mr. and Mrs. Tung had left; the only noise left was the filter from Mary's fish tank loud through the locked door of her office. On the way back to Senior House the institute was empty. The infinite corridor, normally populated at all hours, was empty for all of its 319 paces. So was every other corridor. Only a nerd's nerd studies at 11:30 on New Year's Eve.
1984年。更多动力学（林肯班，B+），加上静力学复习（希尔教授，B++，班上最高的B，不是A）。我从一本书跳到另一本书，缩小了概念上的差距。在静力学中，重量位于横梁上。在动力学中，重量上下移动。在系统动力学（大卫·米勒，海军A）中，重量上下移动，你将横梁称为弹簧。相同的重量，相同的梁。
1984. More Dynamics (Lincoln's class, B plus), plus review of Statics (Professor Hill, B plus plus, the highest B in the class, not an A). I skipped from book to book, closing the conceptual gaps. In Statics, the weight sits on the beam. In Dynamics, the weight moves up and down. In System Dynamics (David Miller, A with the navy guys), the weight moves up and down and you call the beam a spring. The same weight, the same beam.
1月2日
January 2
《环球报》在生活版块的前面有一篇搞笑的文章说：“我们学会了努力争取和‘需要’我们价值的外在象征，而不是享受学习、完成和掌握的过程，这是一个更糟糕的过程。”人类自然的满足。” 简而言之，这就是麻省理工学院。成绩是价值的外在标志。客观的、定量的，比如 SAT 成绩、智商、工资、银行余额、道琼斯平均指数、彩票号码。一切都是这样的。
The Globe article on the front of the Living section with the funnies in it said, "We learn to strive for and 'need' external symbols of our worth, instead of enjoying the process of learning, accomplishing, and mastering, which is a more natural human gratification." That's MIT in a nutshell. The grades are the external symbols of worth. Objective, quantitative, like an SAT score, like an IQ, a salary, a bank balance, a Dow Jones average, a lottery number. It's all such a crock.
我开始学习和掌握更多的流体力学。这是资格考试的外部动机最后一次让我更深入地内化流体的行为方式。我越来越清楚为什么薄荷派蒂的茶叶会落到杯子的中央。我想要了解的烟囱羽流不仅有锅炉废气，还有两个反向旋转的涡流。它呈现出化学方程式和矢量微积分的抽象美。
I set out to learn and master more of Fluid Mechanics. This was the last time the external motivation of the qualifying examinations would make me internalize more deeply how fluids behaved. It became clearer to me why Peppermint Patty's tea leaves went to the center of the cup. The smokestack plume I'd wanted to understand had not only boiler exhaust but two counterrotating vortices. It took on the abstract beauty of chemical equations and vector calculus.
1 月 3 日至 5 日
January 3-5
更多液体和一些固体。这背后全是物理学，平衡的力，平衡的时刻，连续性。日常生活中的物理学。建筑物边缘的漩涡。当卡车驶过时桥梁会震动。摩天大楼被风吹得摇摇欲坠。当施加的力太大时，固体就会破裂；流体继续变形，以适应力。
More Fluids, and some Solids. It was all physics underneath, balanced forces, balanced moments, continuity. The physics of everyday life. Vortices at the edge of buildings. Bridges shaking when trucks drive by. Skyscrapers buffeted by the wind. A solid breaks when the force applied is too big; a fluid continues to deform, to adjust to the force.
我在无限长廊上遇见了希尔教授。
I met Professor Hill on the infinite corridor.
“是的，我真的很高兴有机会一次性复习所有内容，早在 50 年代我参加考试时，”他说。“你会发现仅仅三四个方程就可以控制很多现象。”
"Yes, I really enjoyed the opportunity to review everything at once, back in the '50s when I took the exams," he said. "You'll find that just three or four equations govern a heck of a lot of phenomena."
1月6日
January 6
在切特家里举行派对。切特在列克星敦的海角三居室里没有太多家具。也许一旦他获得终身职位，他就会结婚并生下孩子和家具。
Party at Chet's house. Chet didn't have a lot of furniture in his three-bedroom Cape in Lexington. Perhaps he would marry and fill it with kids and furniture once he was tenured.
在一次谈话中，切特说：“资格赛可以很好地衡量你相对于同龄人的知识水平，但它们并不是一个很好的绝对衡量标准。结果会议上会发生很多事情，当教授们聚集在一起并进行较量时，会发生很多事情。”要么拒绝为他们的学生决斗。它应该是完全客观的、定量的，但其中有相当多的主观评价。”
In a circle of conversation, Chet said, "The qualifiers are a good measurement of your knowledge relative to your peers, but they're not a good absolute measure. A lot happens at the results meeting, when the professors get together and duke it out or decline to duke it out for their students. It's supposed to be entirely objective, quantitative, but there is a fair amount of subjective evaluation that goes into it."
“那么，切特，你会在那次会议上为我而战吗？” 我问。
"So, Chet, are you going to fight for me at that meeting?" I asked.
“那天我将在底特律发表一篇论文。”
"I'll be giving a paper in Detroit that day."
在聚会回来的路上，在本的车里，收音机播放着布伦达·李的节目。她唱道：“Breeaakk it...对我来说是gintleeee...”
On the way back from the party, in Ben's car, the radio played Brenda Lee. She sang, "Breeaakk it ... to me gintleeee ..."
1 月 7 日
January 7
沮丧。凝视着窗外。无法发挥作用。无法思考。它伴随着这片领土而来。他们像螺栓一样把你举起来，从各个角度检查你的缺陷。如果你表现出色，他们就会把你和其他高价螺栓一起扔进垃圾箱。如果你不符合规格，他们就会把你扔进废品堆。无论哪种情况，他们都不会像对待人一样对待你。
Depression. Staring out the window. Inability to function. Inability to think. It comes with this territory. They pick you up like a bolt, examine you for flaws from all angles. If you are good, they put you in the bin with all the other high-priced bolts. If you don't meet the specs, they throw you in the scrap heap. In either case, they don't treat you like a human being.
1 月 8 日
January 8
骑自行车逃跑。又是林肯，萨德伯里。英格兰般的灰色、白雪皑皑、寒冷而死寂的风景。我通过膝盖像活塞一样上下运动，向自行车输入正弦强迫函数；我的小腿是连接到两缸发动机轴的连杆。我的体重储存了能量，并将交流输入转换为直接输出，每小时十五英里。
Bicycle ride to escape. Lincoln again, Sudbury. England-like gray, snowy, wintry dead landscapes. I input a sinusoidal forcing function to the bicycle through my knees going up and down like pistons; my lower legs were connecting rods to the shaft on the two-cylinder engine. My weight stored the energy and converted the alternating input into a direct output, fifteen miles per hour.
沿途加油站的汽水机一直困扰着我。两周后我就有机会成为“胡椒博士”。
The soda machines at the gas stations along the route haunted me. In two weeks I'd have my shot at being "Dr. Pepper."
1 月 9 日
January 9
本和我聚在一起审查《控制》。事实证明，本是一名明星学生，成绩全优。通常情况下，没有人会一起学习预选赛，因为你们中的一个人最终可能会教另一个人，如果你这样做，那么你就会处于不利地位，并且你会浪费一些时间，而这些时间可能会给你一些洞察力，帮助其中一项测试。但这条规则也有一些例外。
Ben and I got together to review Controls. Ben was turning out to be a star student, what with straight A's and all. Normally no one studies together for the qualifiers, because one of you probably will end up teaching the other and if you do that then you'll be at a disadvantage and you'll have wasted some time that might have given you some insight that would help on one of the tests. But there were a few exceptions to this rule.
“我告诉你，”本说，“自从我被这里录取，他们在录取通知书中附上了之前预选赛的样题包以来，我就一直在考虑它们。现在已经两年多了，他们”只剩下十天了。简直不敢相信。我最近睡得不好，而且每天必须花一个小时去厕所。我的意思是，如果我没能成功，我会困扰我一辈子在我的余生中，就像每次我打开电视机或拿起《时代》杂志时，都会有麻省理工学院的某个人对某件事发表他的权威意见，我会对自己说，“如果我的话，那可能就是我”我只是工作更加努力了。”
"I tell you," Ben said, "ever since I was accepted here and they included in the acceptance letter the packet of sample questions from the previous qualifiers, I've been thinking about them. It's been over two years now and they're only ten days away. It's hard to believe. I haven't been sleeping well recently, and I must spend an hour on the john every day. I mean, if I don't make it, it'll haunt me for the rest of my life, like every time I turn on the TV set or pick up Time magazine there'll be some guy from MIT giving his authoritative opinion on something and I'll say to myself, 'That could have been me if I'd just worked harder.' "
T 减十
T minus ten
歌声贯穿我的全身。“我不在乎他们对我做什么，他们不能夺走我的尊严”，以及“成功/不再假装，这一次我正在成功。” 我们有多么好的文化啊。
Songs ran through me. "I don't care what they do to me, they can't take away my dignity," and "Makin' it / No more fakin' it, this time in life I'm makin' it." What a culture we have.
在自助餐厅，我和卡洛斯·洛佩兹以及传热实验室足球队的其他一些剩下的人坐在一起，在过去的两年里，我通过每三四个月在走廊里聊天十分钟来与他们保持着密切的友谊。我告诉他们关于我的尊严的歌曲歌词。
At the cafeteria, I sat with Carlos Lopez and some of the other remaining guys from the Heat Transfer lab soccer team, the guys I'd maintained close friendships with through our ten minute hallway chats every three or four months for the past two years. I told them about the song line about my dignity.
“你错了，”卡洛斯说。“你的尊严是最重要的。这有点像《拯救》中的场景，一个人被强奸，乡巴佬说，‘尖叫男孩；像猪一样尖叫。’” 这是教授最后一次对你有任何权力。考试结束后，无论通过还是失败，你都是你自己。他们知道这一点，所以他们想钉住你。”
"You're wrong about that," Carlos said. "Your dignity is the first thing that goes. It's sort of like that scene in Deliverance where the guy's getting raped and the redneck says, 'Squeal boy; squeal like a pig.' This is the last time the professors have any power over you. After the exams, pass or fail, you're your own person. They know that, so they want to nail you."
哦，得了吧，事情不可能那么糟糕。
Oh, come on, it can't be that bad.
“顺便说一句，”卡洛斯继续说道，“你带护膝了吗？”
'By the way," Carlos continued. "You got your kneepads?"
我说，“是的，我需要他们，这样我就可以跪在他们面前恳求他们，‘求求你，让我加入你们的俱乐部。我希望人们向我寻求建议，并认为我是最聪明的人之一世界上的人们……尽管我不是。”
I said, "Yeah, I'll need them so I can kneel before them and beg them, 'Please, please, let me be in your club. I want people to seek advice from me and think I'm one of the smartest people in the world ... even though I'm not.' "
“嘿，我喜欢这样，”卡洛斯说。“尤其是那句妙语。”
"Hey, I like that," Carlos said. "Especially the punch line."
T 减九
T minus nine
尼克在车床上。“是的，佩帕，我希望你能成功。也许你会在这里终生。这发生在很多人身上。他们不断通过测试，在你意识到之前，繁荣，他们已经获得了终身教职。他们已经那些教授过着美好的生活。有稳定的基本工资，每周工作四天，一年八个月，其余时间创办自己的公司，提供咨询服务，写书。他们是自己的人。我明白为什么你想尝试像他们一样。顺便问一下，我有没有告诉过你他们要放我走了？”
Nick was at the lathe. "Yeah, Peppah, I hope you make it. Maybe you'll be a lifer here. It happens to a lot of people. They keep passing the tests and before you know it, boom, they've got tenure. They've got a good life, those professors. Secure base pay, fourday-a-week job, eight months a year, the rest of the time starting their companies and consulting and writing their books. They're their own men. I can see why you want to try to be like them. By the way, did I tell you they're lettin' me go?"
“那太好了，尼克。他们会让你去哪里？”
"That's great, Nick. Where are they letting you go?"
“不，你不明白。他们要解雇我。”
"No, you don't understand. They're layin' me off."
“他们给你斧子？”
"They're giving you the axe?"
“现在是解雇通知时间。就像沃特敦的轮胎厂一样。不过，我不能抱怨。我在这里已经二十年了，养老金可以让我和我的小熊住在阿灵顿的房子里。我”不过，每周会来一两天，有点像临时电话……顾问。”
"It's pink slip time. Just like from the tire plant in Watertown. I can't complain, though. I been here twenty years and the pen- sion'll keep me an' my honey bear in the house in Ahlington. I'll come in one or two days a week, though, sort of like a whadaya call ... consultant."
“哎呀，尼克，如果没有你，这个地方就不会有任何乐趣了，”我说。
"Gee, Nick, the place just wouldn't be any fun without you," I said.
“别担心，船长。我们永远都有快速压缩机。”
"Don't worry, Cap'n. We'll always have the rapid compression machine."
T 减八
T minus eight
哲学时间。忘记通过或失败；学习我能学到的东西。向控制组的教授询问稳定性问题。动态稳定性（林肯，二九四路线）感觉可以告诉您一些事情，例如您的汽车是否会因过快转弯而翻倒。控制意义上的稳定性（二十四）告诉您一些事情，例如您正在操作的机器人手臂是否会来回弹跳并自行破裂。
Philosophy time. Forget passing or failing; learn what I can learn. Ask professor in controls group about Stability. Stability in the Dynamics (Lincoln, course two nine four) sense tells you things like whether or not your car will flip over going around a turn too fast. Stability in the Controls sense (two fourteen) tells you things like whether the robot arm you're working on will bounce back and forth and break itself apart.
由于Controls类被称为“系统动力学和控制”，而Dynamics类被称为“动力学”，我认为稳定性的两种不同含义之间必定存在联系。这位匿名的终身教授支支吾吾，事实上他也不知道。他逃避道：“我是故意回避的。我认为这些事情你应该自己解决。”
Since the Controls class was called "System Dynamics and Controls" and the Dynamics class was called "Dynamics," I thought there must be a connection between the two different meanings of stability. The anonymous tenured professor hemmed and hawwed and in fact he didn't know. He escaped with "I'm deliberately being evasive. I think you should work these things out for yourself."
我不满意。我敲了克兰德尔教授的门。他是麻省理工学院 10% 的顶尖教授之一，正是他们为该学院赢得了声誉。他戴着领结，戴着半框眼镜，穿着西装，他的课程《工程分析方法》是麻省理工学院的经典课程。冯·卡门研究所的一位土耳其朋友首先向我介绍了他。
I wasn't satisfied. I knocked on Professor Crandall's door. He was one of the 10 percent creme de la creme of MIT professors who give the institute its reputation. He wore a bow tie and half glasses and a suit, and his course, Methods in Engineering Analysis, was an MIT classic. A Turkish friend at the von Karman institute had first told me about him.
我重复了我的问题。“我想看看二哦二（系统动力学）意义上的稳定性和二九四（动力学）意义上的稳定性之间的联系。”
I repeated my question. "I'd like to see the connection between stability in the two oh two (System Dynamics) sense and in the two nine four (Dynamics) sense."
“是的，”他轻声、故意地说。“这是一个连续的思想。你看，如果你画出你的汽车绕一个弯，如果你考虑在绕该弯道时将其从平衡位置稍微移开，你会得到第二个- 阶微分方程表示它将如何返回到平衡位置。该方程中的系数决定了系统的固有频率和阻尼，这些系数与您在设计控制器时使用的系数相同，例如，防止车辆翻过去了。”
"Yes," he said softly, deliberately. "It's a continuum of thought. You see, if you draw your automobile going around a turn, and if you look at moving it away from its equilibrium position by a small amount as it goes around that curve, you'll arrive at a second-order differential equation for how it will return to that equilibrium position. The coefficients in that equation determine the natural frequency and damping of the system, and those are the same coefficients you use when designing a controller to, for example, prevent the vehicle from flipping over."
他从书桌抽屉里拿出一张专门放废纸的废纸，勾画出其中的相似之处。我问了其他问题，他至少提出了两种看待每个问题的方式。
He pulled a piece of scrap paper from the desk drawer reserved for scrap paper and sketched the similarities. I asked other questions, and he presented at least two ways of looking at each.
他证实了我的预感，即问题就像透明立方体内的一台机器。当你看立方体的一侧时，你会看到一些机器的样子。但要彻底理解它，你必须拿起立方体，从上面、下面、各个侧面观察它，摇动它以查看其中的联系。
He confirmed my hunch that a problem is like a machine inside a clear cube. When you look at one side of the cube you see what some of the machine looks like. But to understand it thoroughly, you have to pick up the cube and look at it from above, below, from all sides, shake it to see the connections.
T 减七并计数
T minus seven and counting
暴风雪。Atkinson 302 卧室的窗外飘着大片雪花。我看了第一学期的流体电影指南。每一片雪花都会影响其他每一片雪花。漩涡在树木周围刻出马蹄铁；漩涡从建筑物的角落脱落。霍华德·格尔曼 (Howard Gelman) 穿着运动短裤、T 恤、黑色袜子和高帮 Keds。
Snowstorm. Large flakes out the window from Atkinson 302's bedroom. I looked at the guidebook to the Fluids films from the first term. Every snowflake affects every other snowflake. Vortices carved horseshoes around trees; vortices shed off comers of buildings. Howard Gelman wore gym shorts, a T-shirt, black socks, and high-top Keds.
T 减六
T minus six
凯克教授来自中华人民共和国的学生曾明和我一起吃了午餐。他也在为预选赛进行学习。在穿过马萨诸塞大街的路上，明遇到了他的一位朋友。“迪萨是来自中国的麻省理工学院博士，”明说。“如果我通过预选赛，我就会排在 30、35 号。”
Ming Tsang, Professor Keck's student from the People's Republic of China, ate lunch with me. He was studying for the qualifiers, too. On the way across Mass. Ave., Ming met one of his friends. "Disa man first Ph.D. at MIT from PRC," Ming said. "Ifah I pass qualifiers, I be number 30, 35."
“哎呀，你们每个人都应该有一件印有你们号码的 T 恤，”我说。他们笑了。
"Gee, you guys should each have a T-shirt with your number on it," I said. They laughed.
Ming说：“你明天来我们学习小组吗？我下午7点3-249和一些朋友见面。”
Ming said, "You come to our study group tomorrow? I meet with some friends at 3-249, 7:00 P.M."
“听起来不错，”我说。
"Sounds good," I said.
这些人比20亿中国人还要聪明，我要和他们竞争。我只是希望他们的阅读能力较差，这会减慢他们的速度。
These guys are smarter than 2 billion Chinese and I'm going to be competing against them. I just hope they have poor reading skills that will slow them down.
T 减五
T minus five
与Ming一起进行审查的还有另外两个人。一个将在本月参加考试，另一个将在五月参加考试。他们俩都显得很担心。如果我失败了，我会找到一份年薪约 30 格兰特的工作，并开始积累资产。如果他们失败了，他们将乘坐第一架 747 返回世界上最大的监狱。
There were two others at the review session with Ming. One would take the exams this month, the other in May. They both looked worried. If I failed, I'd find a job at about 30 grand a year and begin to build up equity. If they failed they'd be on the first 747 back to the world's largest prison.
其中一位担心的王先生说：“我希望考试结束。从圣诞节前两周开始，我现在已经连续学习五个星期了。每天十二个小时。我在流体书、热书后面做每道题，控制书，力学书。现在我开始复习阅读。”
One of the worried ones, Mr. Wang, said, "I want exam be over. I be study five week straight now, since two weeks before Christmas. Twelve hours every day. I did every problem in back of Fluid book, Thermo book, Control book, Mechanics books. Now I start review reading."
这就是所需要的。我敢打赌这些人不会有动机失误或抑郁。他们用工作战胜了它。
So that's what it takes. I bet these guys don't have motivational lapses or get depressed. They beat it with work.
纪兆铭从背包里拿出一叠一英寸厚的文件。它们是以前资格考试中的问题，并提供了解决方案，超出了夏洛特·埃文斯给我的样本问题包的范围。完全合法；中国网制作了很好的文件。明主持了会议；我们四个人围坐在一张牌桌旁。
Ming pulled out a one-inch stack of papers from his backpack. They were problems from previous qualifying exams, with solutions, above and beyond the packet of sample problems Charlotte Evans had given to me. Perfectly legal; the China network had produced good files. Ming ran the session; the four of us sat around a card table.
“怎么样？” 明说道，将第一个问题放到了桌子中央。这是一辆汽车的气门和摇臂总成，装配体。
"How 'bou dissa one?" Ming said as he put the first problem on the center of the table. It was a car's valve and rocker-arm assembly, assembelee assembelee.
“我认为我们必须对二自由度系统进行拉格朗日公式，”王先生说。其他人都同意了，我又有什么资格不同意呢？
"I tinka we have to do Lagrangian formulation for two degree of freedom system," Mr. Wang said. The others agreed and who was I to disagree?
下一个问题。再次快速浏览一下问题，进行几句话的讨论，并就所涉及的原则做出决定。轰轰轰的模式继续下去，我们在不到一个小时的时间内就完成了四十道题。如果这些人学会制造汽车和录像机，上帝会帮助我们。
Next problem. Again a quick look at the problem, a few words of discussion, and a decision on the principle involved. Boom boom boom the pattern continued, and we finished the stack of forty problems in less than an hour. Lord help us if these guys ever learn to build cars and VCRs.
第三位袁先生建议：“我们可以尝试用五分钟的时间讨论第一题；假装这是口语考试。假设我们必须在五分钟后说些什么。”
Mr. Yuen, the third one, suggested, "Les try dissa one for five minutes; pretend it's oral exam. Say we have to say something after five minutes."
问题是设计一个让啤酒桶滚下的波浪坡道。它不可能是笔直的斜坡，因为当桶到达底部时，它们会移动得太快。坡道设计应考虑哪些因素？袁先生来拜访我。“你觉得怎么样？”
The problem was to design a wavy ramp for beer barrels to roll down. It couldn't be a straight ramp because the barrels would go too fast by the time they reached the bottom. What things should be considered in the design of the ramp? Mr. Yuen called on me. "Whatta you think?"
“在我看来，关键是要弄清楚要在坡道上放置多少涟漪。这将影响您可以沿着坡道运送的桶的数量，并且它会告诉您桶是否会碰到“在下降的过程中彼此会互相撞击。波纹的设计应该使啤酒桶推动结构的频率远离结构的共振频率，”我说。
"It looks to me as if the point is to figure out how many ripples to put in the ramp. That will affect the number of barrels you can send down the ramp, and it'll tell you whether or not the barrels will run into each other on the way down. The ripples should be designed so that the frequency of the beer barrels pushing on the structure is far away from the resonant frequency of the structure," I said.
“而且你需要考虑啤酒在桶中旋转的影响，”袁先生说。我们在分手之前进一步讨论了这个问题。
"And you need to consider effect of beer rotating in the barrel," Mr. Yuen said. We discussed it further before breaking.
当我们离开房间时，纪兆铭鼓励了我。他说：“我认为你通过了。”
As we left the room, Ming encouraged me. He said, "I tinka you pass."
T 减四
T minus four
Kwang 是一位来自现代公司的韩国造船工程师，我在 Hill 教授的静力学课上和他一起学习过，他在学生中心的图书馆里，在每平方英寸的纸上写字，无论是正面还是背面，因为纸张在韩国很稀缺。他正在准备海洋工程预选赛。
Kwang, the Korean shipbuilding engineer from Hyundai with whom I'd studied in Professor Hill's Statics class, who wrote on every square inch of paper, front and back, because paper is scarce in Korea, was in the student center library. He was preparing for the qualifiers in ocean engineering.
“此时我不在乎发生什么，”他说。“只要我保持健康就好。”
"At this point I don't care what happens," he said. "Just as long as I keep my health."
那些要对我进行口试的教授们会在学院里走来走去。他们以前就在那里——我从系里的研讨会、教员会议以及从其他学生那里听到的故事中认出了他们。但现在就好像我是一名间谍，我有一张被指派杀死我的俄罗斯间谍的照片，我发现了他，但他还不知道我是谁。偏执狂袭得很深。它会悄悄进入你的生活。
Professors who would be examining me in the orals walked around the institute. They were there before-I recognized them from the department seminars and the faculty meetings and the stories I'd heard from the other students. But now it was as if I were a spy and I had a photo of the Russian spy who was assigned to kill me and I'd spotted him but he didn't know who I was yet. Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep.
我又和Chet Yeung谈过。我告诉他我一直在想的歌曲。
I talked to Chet Yeung again. I told him about the songs I'd been thinking of.
他说：“你可以尝试‘梦想不可能的梦想’。” 不，说实话，我知道你正在经历什么。当我进行这些检查时，我经常发现自己一次盯着窗外几个小时，想知道为什么我要让自己经历这些。”
He said, "You might try 'To Dream the Impossible Dream.' No, seriously, though, I know what you're going through. When I went through those examinations I often found myself staring out the window for hours at a time, wondering why I put myself through it."
T 减三
T minus three
高理想通量（单位面积流量）。我来到麻省理工学院，想要了解我周围的物理原理，今天，一切都在向我大声喊出它的原理：汽车中的质量、弹簧和阻尼器、建筑物中弯曲的梁、烟囱中更多的涡流、喷气式飞机的尾迹和角落。建筑物。我不是在房间里学习，而是在一个带有虚线的盒子里学习，质量和能量进出盒子。我想让这些想法变得有序；我想按需关闭和打开分析；但它卡在打开位置。
High idea flux (flow per unit area). I came to MIT wanting to see the physical principles around me, and today everything shouted its principle out at me: masses and springs and dampers in cars, beams bending underfoot in buildings, more vortices in smokestacks and jet airplane con-trails and corners of buildings. I studied not in a room, but in a box with dashed lines into which mass and energy entered and out of which it exited. I wanted to make the ideas orderly; I wanted to turn the analysis off and on on demand; but it was stuck in the on position.
我去音乐图书馆寻求庇护。贝多芬第七交响曲。电机为转盘的转动惯量提供扭矩和角加速度。大和弦。小和弦，双簧管。规模。规模。音阶优雅地排列和重复。有力。简单地。起鸡皮疙瘩。弦。再次缩放。电脑永远不会创作出这样的音乐。
I went to the music library to seek refuge. Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. The motor provided a torque and an angular acceleration to the rotational inertia of the turntable. Big chord. Small chord, oboe. Scale. Scale. A musical scale permuted and repeated elegantly. Powerfully. Simply. Goosebumps. Chord. Scale again. A computer will never make music like this.
T 减二
T minus two
我拿起夏洛特·埃文斯寄来的考试简报包：一个灰色信封，白色标签上写着我的名字；里面有五张纸，上面写着参赛者、另外二十九个人和我的名字；考试时间；口语考试的时间表很紧，所以我们没有时间作弊；周二论文展示的时间表。主题令人印象深刻：“机械手与其世界之间的动态交互控制”、“恶劣环境中的腐蚀控制”、“为视力障碍者参与体育运动提供技术支持”、“快速压缩机中的柴油燃烧” ”。
I picked up the examination briefing packet from Charlotte Evans: a gray envelope with my name typed on the white label; five sheets of paper inside listing the names of the contestants, twenty-nine others and me; the times of their exams; the tight timetable matrix for the oral exams so we'd have no time to cheat; the schedule for the thesis presentations on Tuesday. The topics were impressive: "Control of Dynamic Interaction between a Manipulator and Its World," "Corrosion Control in a Hostile Environment," "Technological Support for the Involvement of the Sight-Impaired in Sports," "Diesel Combustion in a Rapid Compression Machine."
那天晚上我无法入睡。漩涡、质量和弹簧在我体内相互作用并跳舞——它们不会消失。但我并不无聊。我在笛卡尔坐标系中思考。我曾是。
I couldn't sleep that night. The vortices and masses and springs interacted and danced through me-they wouldn't go away. But I wasn't bored. I was thinking in Cartesian coordinates. I was.
T 减一
T minus one
前一天。最后浏览一下我的笔记本。中午，我听从了切特的建议，把我的书锁了起来。我想让自己在考试前睡个好觉，所以我在雪地里散步。跨过哈佛桥，学院随处可见：贝聿铭（40 岁，建筑学）设计了约翰·汉考克大厦。David Wormley（'62，机械工程）是修复该问题的团队的一员。在查尔斯河的剑桥一侧，这座研究所是钢蓝灰色的，后面是烟囱羽流，前面是爱奥尼亚柱和新古典主义权威，它向我提出挑战，要求我达到它的标准——绝对的、无情的、无懈可击的最好的。
The day before. One last pass through my notebooks. At noon, I took Chet's advice and locked away my books. I wanted to make myself tired enough to sleep before the exams so I took a walk in the snow. Halfway across the Harvard Bridge, the institute was everywhere: I. M. Pei ('40, Architecture) had designed the John Hancock Building. David Wormley ('62, Mechanical Engineering) was part of the team that fixed it. On the Cambridge side of the Charles, the institute, steel blue-gray, with smokestack plumes behind, Ionic columns and neoclassical authority ahead, challenged me to meet its standard-absolute, unforgiving, unassailably the best.
1月21日
January 21
跳台滑雪运动员把车停在斜坡上，然后加速冲下起飞坡道。
The ski jumper pulled up over the lip and accelerated down the take-off ramp.
笔试地点是 3 号楼四楼，汤姆·布莱办公室对面的房间。这是我建造二七十设计项目的一部分的房间，周围的桌子上有绘图桌、齿轮和齿轮目录。考试于上午 9:00 准时开始；每个人都就位，拿着十二支二号铅笔和装满课本和笔记本的牛奶箱。坐在我旁边的那个人背着一个背包，里面装着早餐和午餐，还有一个装满咖啡的保温瓶。
The written exam was on the fourth floor of Building 3, in the room across the hall from Tom Bligh's office. It was the room I'd built part of the two seventy design project in, with drafting tables and gears and gear catalogs on the tables around the perimeter. The exams were to start at 9:00 sharp; everyone was in place with twelve number two pencils and milk crates full of textbooks and notebooks. The guy sitting next to me had a backpack with breakfast and lunch in it, plus a thermos full of coffee.
监考人员是前一年通过预选赛的两个人。我觉得这很令人厌恶。就好像他们是南部种植园的主要奴隶，他们被赋予特权，以换取对其他奴隶发号施令。他们向研究所发放了灰色信封，我们在 9:00:00 将其撕开。
The proctors were two guys who'd passed the qualifiers the year before. I found this distasteful. It was as if they were the majordomos, the chief slaves in the southern plantations who were accorded special privileges in exchange for bossing around the other slaves. They handed out the institute gray envelopes and at 9:00:00 we ripped them open.
考试 1. 系统动力学和控制。考试题目是气动控制问题。气动控制利用各种气室来打开和关闭阀门。如果您以前见过它们，那么它们很简单。事实上，它们非常简单，以至于在麻省理工学院的两个控制课程中甚至没有提及它们。当然，如果您真正了解控制的概念和基本原理，您就可以找出任何类型控制系统中的要点并解决问题。我记得卡洛斯谈到预选赛时说的：“让他们知道你所知道的一切。他们必须进行一场只有一个人能够在一小时内完成的考试。否则，人们会开始在考试中途退场，然后这对速度较慢的人不公平。把你知道的一切都写下来。”
Exam 1. System Dynamics and Controls. The exam was a pneumatic control problem. Pneumatic control uses various air chambers to open and close valves. They are simple if you've seen them before. They're so simple, in fact, that in the two MIT Controls classes, they were not even mentioned. Of course, if you really understand the concepts of controls, the fundamentals, you can pick out the important points in any kind of control system and solve the problem. I remembered what Carlos said about the qualifiers: "Let them know everything you know. They have to give an exam that only one person will be able to finish in an hour. Otherwise, people would start to walk out midway through the test and that wouldn't be fair to the slower ones. Just put down everything you know."
我写道，对于所有部件来说，压力乘以面积等于力；我尝试通过支点和几何约束来连接组件。我勉强获得了部分学分。我希望其他测试会更熟悉。
I wrote that pressure times area equals force for all the components; I tried to link the components by fulcrums and geometric constraints. I scraped for partial credit. I hoped the other tests would be more familiar.
考试 2. 流体力学。第一学期我在夏皮罗的课上得了 B。我在比利时花了一年时间研究流体。这应该很容易。“如图所示，一根软管水平地排放到一个有孔的铲斗上。求出将铲斗举起所需的力
Exam 2. Fluid Mechanics. I got a B in Shapiro's class that first term. I spent a year studying fluids in Belgium. This should be easy. "A hose discharges horizontally to a bucket with a hole in it as shown in the figure. Find the force required to hold the bucket up
小菜一碟。十分之内至少有七分。
Piece of cake. At least seven out of ten points.
午休时间为 11:00 至 1:00。坐在我旁边的那个人坐下来回顾并吃午餐，喝咖啡。我去了溜冰场。我的冰鞋下方的压力足够高，足以融化一层薄薄的水膜，冰刀在上面几乎没有摩擦地滑动。冰鞋和冰之间剩余的摩擦力提供了寻心向心力来平衡我的身体继续直线前进的倾向，然后我转身。
Lunch break from 11:00 to 1:00. The guy sitting next to me sat and reviewed and ate his lunch and drank his coffee. I went to the ice rink. The pressure under my skate was high enough to melt a thin film of water upon which the blade slid with nearly no friction. The remaining friction between the skate and the ice provided the center-seeking centripetal force to balance my body's tendency to keep going straight, and I turned.
考试 3. 力学。“给一根垂直的杆一个冲量。找出使杆转一圈并落在其末端所需的冲量的大小和方向。见图。”
Exam 3. Mechanics. "A vertical rod is given an impulse. Find the magnitude and direction of the impulse required to make the rod do one revolution and land on its end. See figure."
再说一次，这与我在麻省理工学院参加的任何测试或任何课程中提到的任何内容都完全不同。但我现在知道如何思考了，对吗？有点。我查询了数据库，然后回到了高中物理课，又回到了 4 号楼埃哲顿博士墙上的照片。如果你扔一个扳手，这个叫做质心的东西就会沿着一条轨迹运动，就好像它是一个棒球一样。扳手围绕该质心旋转。所以也许解决这个问题的技巧是给杆一个足够大的踢力，使得质心上升和下降所需的时间（就好像棒球被抛到空中一样）等于所需的时间为使杆旋转一圈的冲动的横向分量。将问题分解为两个独立的问题；最后解决一个共同的链接。
Again, this is nothing like anything that was ever mentioned in any test or any class I'd taken at MIT. But I know how to think now, right? Sort of. I polled the data base and went back to high school physics class and back to the photos on Doc Edgerton's wall in Building 4. If you throw a wrench, this thing called the center of mass goes along a trajectory as if it were a baseball. The wrench rotates around that center of mass. So maybe the trick to this problem is to give the rod a kick big enough so that the time required for the center of mass to rise and fall (as if it were a baseball being thrown up in the air) is equal to the time required for the sideways component of the impulse to make the rod do a revolution. Break the problem into two separate problems; solve for a common link at the end.
如果我通过了，我就可以和写这个问题的教授一起讨论这个问题，并了解我的成绩有多接近，因为如果我通过了，我将成为俱乐部的成员。如果我失败了，我永远不会知道我是否接近，因为评分考试不会被退回，因为（1）如果你决定起诉他们不及格，他们不想给你任何证据，（2）毕业麻省理工学院的学生没有工会。估计分，六分。
If I pass, I'll be able to go over the problem with the professor who wrote it and learn how close I was, because if I pass I'll be a member of the club. If I fail, I will never know whether I was even close, because the graded exams are not given back because (1) they don't want to give you any evidence if you decide to sue them for flunking you and (2) graduate students at MIT don't have a union. Estimated points, six.
考试 4. 热。我想了解烟囱，它就在这里。“(A) 计算烟囱的出口速度，烟囱高 300 英尺，锥度为 2 度。入口条件是空气温度为 1200 华氏度，压力为 2 个大气压。做出任何合理的假设。”
Exam 4. Thermo. I wanted to understand the smokestack, and here it was. "(A) Calculate the exit velocity from a smokestack, 300 feet high, with a 2 degree taper. Inlet conditions are air at 1200 degrees F, at a pressure of 2 atmospheres. Make any reasonable assumptions."
又是一块蛋糕。
Another piece of cake.
“(B) 现在假设流量稳定或不随时间变化。”
"(B) Now assume that the flow is steady or does not vary with time."
等一下。我认为 A 部分是稳定的。Gyftopoulos 一定是写了这个测试。
Wait a minute. I assumed it was steady in part A. Gyftopoulos must have written this test.
重做 (A) 部分。还剩十分钟。开始（B）部分。估计分，七分。
Redo part (A). Ten minutes left. Start part (B). Estimated points, seven.
沙特阿拉伯北欧队的跳台滑雪运动员冲出了起飞坡道的尽头。他现在在空中，周末，漂浮着，希望自己不会向前摔倒，脸着地。
Off the end of the take-off ramp the ski jumper from the Saudi Arabian Nordic team went. He was in the air now, for the weekend, floating, hoping he wouldn't fall forward and land on his face.
我与一位管家分享了这个类比。
I shared the analogy with one of the majordomos.
他回答说：“我认为这更像是经历了飓风的两面。你今天经历了一面，现在你在周末的平静中。周一和周二你会从另一面出来。” ”
He answered, "I think it's more like going through both sides of a hurricane. You went through one side today, and now you're in the calm eye for the weekend. On Monday and Tuesday you'll come out the other side."
星期天下午。我问小明周末过得怎么样。
Sunday afternoon. I asked Ming how his weekend was going.
“哦，不错，口试课本刚刚背完。”
"Oh, pretty good. I just finish memorizing textbooks for oral exam."
星期一早上
Monday morning
我穿着三件套西装和皮底鞋在楼梯上上下练习。完美的路线是从稍宽的地方开始，然后在我跑进去靠近内侧转弯时抓住栏杆的垂直部分，就像在印地 500 中一样。从一个测试到另一个测试的运动中节省的任何秒数都可能是几秒钟的灵感。
I did the practice runs in my three-piece suit and leather-soled shoes up and down the stairs. The perfect line was to start a little wide, then grab the vertical piece of the bannister as I ran in to take the turn close to the inside, like in the Indy 500. Any seconds saved in the movement from test to test might be the seconds of inspiration.
力学、流体、热学进展顺利。希尔、韦尔、夏皮罗、林肯和吉夫托普洛斯出人意料地彬彬有礼。
Mechanics, Fluids, Thermo went well. Hill, Weare, Shapiro, Lincoln, and Gyftopoulos were surprisingly civil.
然后是控制。最后四十分钟。
And then there was Controls. The last forty minutes.
“当允许气体从大型储层进入腔室 a 时，如何设计反馈控制回路以使表面 x 以指定的恒定速度移动？不要假设不可压缩流动。”
"How would you design a feedback control loop to make the surface x move at a specified constant speed, when gas is allowed to enter chamber a from a large reservoir? Do NOT assume incompressible flow."
这是一个很好的老气球问题，但有一些变化。可压缩流。这将流体和热能带入控制中。这使得事情变得加倍困难。还剩十七分钟准备我的演讲。不知道可压缩部分。您需要的是一个控制阀和一个运动传感器来告诉您物体移动的速度。
The good old balloon problem, but with a twist. Compressible flow. This brings Fluids and Thermo into Controls. This makes it doubly hard. Seventeen minutes left to prepare my presentation. No idea on the compressible part. What you need is a control valve and a motion transducer to tell you how fast the thing is moving.
这很好，除非整个事情是高度非线性的，因为气体是可压缩的，所以这个问题不适合他们教我的控制框架。
This would be fine except the whole thing is highly nonlinear since the gas is compressible, so this problem doesn't fit within the framework of the Controls they've taught me.
准备潜水吧，船长。呜呜呜呜呜。奥加奥加。战斗站。
Prepare to dive, Captain. Whoop whoop whoop whoop. Aooga Aooga. Battle stations.
我走进房间，三个肥胖的审判官坐在那儿进行审判。我成功地在学习期间不吃苦头。我实际上减掉了几磅。如果这些人能活那么久的话，他们就已经在获得终身教职的路上了。
I walked into the room where the three fat Inquisitors sat in judgment. I'd succeeded in not porking out during my studying; I'd actually lost a few pounds. These guys were on their way to tenure, if they lived that long.
“把你的解决方案写在黑板上，”第一个说。
"Write your solution on the board," the first one said.
该黑板不是固定在墙上的普通黑板，而是可以翻转的独立式黑板。当我在上面写字的时候，它不稳定。
The board was not a regular blackboard attached to a wall, but a freestanding type that you could flip over. It was unstable when I wrote on it.
“呃，我真的不知道如何解决可压缩性问题。不过，我确实对不可压缩的情况有一个想法，”我说。
"Uh, I really don't know how to address the compressibility issue. I do have an idea for the incompressible case, though," I said.
“你希望我们为此给你加分吗？”
"Do you expect us to give you any points for that?"
“嗯，它会展示我对此类问题的一些了解。”
"Well, it would show some of what I know about this type of problem."
“好吧，你继续吧。”
"Okay, go ahead."
我概述了这个问题以及我对格林独立研究所做的推导的记忆。当我写下符号和方程式时，黑板无情地倒塌，越来越远地落到地板上。任何靠近黑板底部的地方，唯一的书写方式就是我的膝盖。我犹豫了一下，开始站起来。
I sketched the problem and what I remembered of the derivation I'd done for Greene's independent study. The blackboard flopped mercilessly as I wrote the symbols and equations, farther and farther down toward the floor. Any closer to the bottom of the board and the only way to write would be from my knees. I hesitated for a second and started to stand up.
“不。继续写下去。写到黑板的底部。”第三个审判官说道。跪下，孩子。尖叫声。像猪一样尖叫。
"No. Keep writing down there. Write to the bottom of the board," the third Inquisitor said. On your knees, boy. Squeal. Squeal like a pig.
我不需要你，朋友。我不需要你的批准来使我完整。我站起来说：“不。我更喜欢站着。像个男人一样。”
I don't need you, pal. I don't need your approval to make me complete. I stood up and said, "No. I prefer to stand. Like a man."
周三下午晚些时候，我敲开了罗森诺的门。他带我到他办公室外大厅的长凳上。那里比较吵闹，因此更加私密。
Late Wednesday afternoon I knocked on Rohsenow's door. He took me out to the bench in the hall outside his office. It was noisier there and therefore more private.
“坐吧，”他说。他打开剪贴板，上面有图表，上面有每个人的分数。“你在流体方面做得还不错；书面 7 分，口头 6 分。你在热力学方面得到了两个 7，在其他领域得到了 6，一个 5，一个 3。你把所有这些加起来加上你的论文分 13满分 20 分，满分为 60 分（满分 100 分）。现在看看某人的分数何时在该范围内，我们查看分布。如果您有几个 10 分和几个 2 分，那么我们可能会让您通过……”
"Have a seat," he said. He opened the clipboard with the chart with everyone's scores on it. "You didn't do all that badly in Fluids; 7 written, 6 oral. And you got two 7s in Thermo, and 6s, one 5 and one 3 in the other areas. You add it all up plus your thesis points of 13 out of 20 and it comes to 60 out of 100. Now see when somebody's score is in that range we look at the distribution. If you'd had a couple of 10s and a couple of 2s, well, we might have let you pass...."
“你能让我五月再试一次吗？”
"Will you let me try again in May?"
“好吧，对于像你这样的情况，我们会说，好吧，我们就称之为球赛吧。”
"Well, in a case like yours, we say, well, let's call it a ballgame."
斯蒂芬妮在哪里？阿里在哪儿？玛丽在哪儿？尼克在哪儿？我现在可以和谁说话？我可以向谁哭泣？唯一的肩膀是冷的。
Where's Stephanie? Where's Ari? Where's Mary? Where's Nick? Who can I talk to now? Who can I cry to? The only shoulders are cold.
罗森诺继续说道：“我总是告诉处于你这个位置的学生，要把这想象成你经历了严格的申请流程，但没有被选中。”
Rohsenow continued, "I always tell students in your position to think of it sort of as if you went through a rigorous application process and weren't selected."
“嗯。嗯。好吧，先生。我得走了，先生。”
"Ummmm. Ummmm. Okay, sir. I have to go, sir."
1984 年 2 月 5 日
February 5, 1984
我把完成的论文放在切特的桌子上。提交部分满足机械工程理学硕士学位的要求。
I put the completed thesis on Chet's desk. Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
“所以，”切特在封面上签名时说道，“你是幸存者。”
"So," Chet said as he signed the cover page, "you're a survivor."
章节
C H A P T E R
21
21
继续
教育
Continuing
Education
1775 年 4 月 19 日，当时 80 岁的塞缪尔·惠特莫尔在此地点附近杀死了三名英国士兵，他被枪杀、刺刀殴打，最后被遗弃等死，但康复后活到了 98 岁
NEAR THIS SPOT SAMUEL WHITTEMORE THEN 80 YEARS OLD KILLED THREE BRITISH SOLDIERS APRIL 19, 1775 HE WAS SHOT, BAYONETED BEATEN AND LEFT FOR DEAD BUT RECOVERED AND LIVED TO BE 98 YEARS OF AGE
-马萨诸塞州阿灵顿中心杰斐逊·卡特故居附近的历史标记
-Historic Marker near the Jefferson Cutter house in Arlington Center, Massachusetts
休斯敦的斯伦贝谢公司没有给我一份工作，这也许也好，因为 1990 年伊拉克人入侵时我可能会被困在科威特。而且我也不会经常见到我的父亲。他生命的最后几年，或者我的母亲或我的姐妹们，他们都还活着并且安然无恙。
Schlumberger, the guys in Houston, didn't offer me a job, which may be just as well because I might have gotten stuck in Kuwait when the Iraqis rolled in in 1990. And I wouldn't have seen as much of my father in the last years of his life, or my mother or my sisters, who are alive and well.
另一方面，雷诺确实给了我一份工作。切特签署我的论文几个月后，他们带我去了巴黎，很难拒绝他们。但在林肯骑自行车时，几个在路边卖柠檬水的孩子让我留在了美国。他们看起来是如此美国化、如此乐观、如此虚无缥缈。
Renault, on the other hand, did offer me a job. They flew me to Paris a few months after Chet signed my thesis, and it was tough to turn them down. But a couple of kids selling lemonade by the side of the road during a bike ride in Lincoln kept me stateside. They just seemed so American, so optimistic, so nonexistential.
1984 年 12 月 31 日
December 31, 1984
新英格兰西部的某个地方。我在外面世界的第一个工程项目。小型水力发电厂的施工现场一片忙碌。开发商的律师在现场祝福工厂“实质性竣工”，并在 1984 年为投资者提供税收抵免。在格罗顿的电船学习的焊工照亮了寒冷的夜空。“BVVVVVT！BVVVVVT！” 电弧声响起。我和我的技术人员爬进像潜艇一样的发电机容器，用螺栓固定了最后的控制硬件——轴背面的超速开关，可以防止发电机转得太快，以及以光学方式读取发电机数量的计数器。齿轮齿的脉冲经过并将该信息转换为转速。水已经被允许在“潜艇”外壳周围流动，“潜艇”的螺旋桨充当涡轮机，通过轴连接到发电机。轴转动得非常缓慢，但扭矩可能会对生命和肢体造成严重损害我小心地将脉冲计数器拧入其安装支架，进行接线，然后从容器中爬出。
Somewhere in western New England. My first engineering project in the outside world. The construction site of the small hydroelectric power plant is abuzz with activity. The developer's lawyer is on site to bless the "substantial completion" of the plant and the tax credit to the investors in calendar year 1984. The welders who learned their craft at Electric Boat in Groton light up the cold night sky. "BVVVVVT! BVVVVVT!" the arcs sound. My technician and I climb into the submarinelike generator container and bolt up the last pieces of control hardware-the over-speed switch on the back of the shaft that will keep the generator from turning too fast, and the counter that optically reads the number of pulses of the gear teeth passing by and translates that information into rotational speed. The water has already been allowed to flow around the 'submarine" housing and the "submarine's" propeller acts as the turbine connected by the shaft to the generator. The shaft turns ever so slowly, but the torque could do serious damage to life and limb. I carefully screw the pulse counter into its mounting bracket, make the wiring connection, and climb out of the container.
在开关室的顶部，首席咨询工程师通过发光二极管读数检查发电机的速度。当它对应于每秒 60 个周期时，他向下拉动开关，300 千瓦的发电厂将 25 千瓦的电力输送到电网中。
Up top in the switchgear room, the lead consulting engineer checks the generator's speed on the light emitting diode readout. When it corresponds to 60 cycles per second, he pulls the switch downward, and the 300 kiloWatt plant pumps 25 kiloWatts into the electric grid.
当水压转化为电能时，整个团队——开发商、承包商、主要投资者——鼓掌、聊天。几分钟过去了。
The whole crew-the developer, the contractor, the main investor-applauds, and chats while the water pressure is transformed into electrical energy. A few minutes go by.
“好吧，这在法庭上应该成立，”律师说。你现在可以断开连接了。”
"Well, that should hold up in court," the lawyer says. You can disconnect it now."
这就是现实世界中事物的运作方式。
So this is the way things work in the real world.
1986 年 1 月 24 日
January 24, 1986
早上晚些时候。伊利诺伊州森林湖的一家体育用品店。在我年轻时的一次创业中，我为新英格兰爱国者队和芝加哥熊队之间的第 200 届超级碗比赛委托制作了 T 恤。为了对冲我的赌注，我印了两件衬衫——每件一件，这样无论比赛如何发展我都有东西可以卖。中场休息时，我乘坐人民快运航班从纽瓦克飞往芝加哥，并在赛后在芝加哥停留了几天，试图卸下剩余的球衣。
Late morning. Lake Forest, Illinois, in a sporting goods shop. In an entrepreneurial venture of my exuberant youth, I commis sioned t-shirts for Super Bowl XX between the New England Patriots and the Chicago Bears. To hedge my bets, I printed two shirts-one each so that I would have something to sell whichever way the game went. At halftime I took a People's Express flight from Newark to Chicago, and have stayed in Chicago for a few days after the game to try to unload the remaining shirts.
唉，熊队球迷不明白熊撕开自由钟的画面。我不能完全责怪他们，因为毕竟自由钟是在费城，而不是在新英格兰。但它是爱国主义的象征，因此是爱国者队的象征，所以它对我有用。
Alas the Bears fans don't understand the imagery of a bear pulling apart the Liberty Bell. I can't totally blame them, since after all the Liberty Bell is in Philadelphia, not in New England. But it is a symbol of patriotism, therefore the Patriots, so it works for me.
上午 11 点 10 分，我正向森林湖体育用品店主进行推销，电话响了。他把它捡起来。“你在开玩笑吧。他们认为他们中有人活下来了吗？天啊。好吧，我去看看电视。” 他挂断电话并对我说，挑战者号航天飞机刚刚爆炸了。” 原来是O型圈。O 形圈很重要。
At 11:10 A.M., in the middle of my sales pitch to the Lake Forest sporting goods proprietor, the phone rings. He picks it up. "You're kidding me. Do they think any of them survived? Oh Jeez. Okay, I'll check the TV." He hangs up and says to me, The Space Shuttle Challenger just blew up.' It turned out to be the O-rings. O-rings are important.
1987年冬天
Winter 1987
发现自己在麻省理工学院有多愚蠢所带来的创伤使我通过与普通人一起上夜校课程来重建信心。我参加了位于波士顿北部沃本的彼得森蒸汽工程学院的一个课程。我听过一次美国宇航局前任局长的演讲。他建议观众中的年轻工程师不断自我教育、上课、阅读。本课程涉及空调维修和控制。一些平凡的东西远低于麻省理工学院，比如恒温器如何工作，控制继电器的作用，以及如何向空调系统添加制冷剂。
The trauma of discovering how stupid I was at MIT has caused me to rebuild my confidence by taking night school classes with regular people. I've enrolled in a class at the Peterson School of Steam Engineering in Woburn, just north of Boston. I heard a lecture once by a former head of NASA. He advised the young engineers in the audience to continually educate themselves, take classes, read. This class is in air conditioning servicing and controls. Mundane stuff that is far beneath MIT, like how a thermostat works, and what a control relay does, and how do you add refrigerant to an air conditioning system.
教练是一名安装空调设备的承包商，他在加上我自己的 20 多个机械师面前起身说道：“如果你在这方面做得很好，你早上就会迫不及待地起床。” 你将成为一名技术员。他带着一个热爱工作、热爱独立的人的自豪感说这句话。他是他自己的人。有很多非常聪明的人从未上过大学，更不用说麻省理工学院了。
The instructor, a contractor who installs air conditioning equipment, gets up in front of the 20 or so mechanics plus myself and says, 'If you get good in this field, you won't be able to wait to get up in the morning. You'll become a technician.' He says it with the pride of a man who loves his work and loves his independence. He's his own man. There are a lot of very smart people who never went to college, never mind MIT.
在 80 年代末的一次工程会议上
At an engineering conference, late 80s
我工作的一些工程师正在出去喝酒。我已经喝了第三杯姜汁汽水了。其中一个男人已经喝得太多了，并开始对这群人中的一个女人调情。我该怎么办？我该怎么办，玛丽？
A few of the engineers where I work are out for drinks. I'm on my third ginger ale. One of the guys has had a few too many and starts hitting on the one woman in the group. What do I do? What do I do, Mary?
开个玩笑，化解气氛。“所以，如果你想在性骚扰审判中找证人，你可以信赖我，”我对她说。“是的，我会在那里。我正在做笔记。” 醉汉闭嘴了。
Make a joke, diffuse the situation. "So if you want a witness at the sexual harassment trial you can count on me," I say to her. "Yessiree I'll be there. I'm takin' notes." The drunk guy shuts up.
1993年7月
July 1993
布加勒斯特，罗马尼亚。我正在从事一项出色的咨询工作，审查前一年编写的节能报告，评估之前报告的影响。我是三人团队的一员。这个项目是我在一次能源工程会议上认识的一个人推荐的。我们认识一年后，那家伙的姐夫的竞选伙伴需要一位能源顾问，他给我打了电话。
Bucharest, Romania. I'm working on an excellent consulting gig, reviewing energy conservation reports that were written the year before, evaluating the impact of the previous reports. I'm part of a three-person team. The project came about from a referral from a guy I met at an energy engineering conference. The guy's brother-in-law's running partner needed an energy consultant a year after we met, and he gave me a call.
我们的导游向我们讲述了这场革命。他们没有枪，也没有太多弹药。因此，他们录制了爆炸和枪声的录音，并将其放置在建筑物的窗户上。政府军开始害怕了。革命者还接管了电视台。一旦他们有了人民的想法，他们就不会失败。”
Our guide tells us about the revolution. They didn't have guns, or much ammunition. So they made tape recordings of explosions and gunfire and placed them in the windows of the buildings. The government troops became afraid. The revolutionaries also took over the TV station. Once they had the thoughts of the people, they couldn't lose."
我们走进俄罗斯建造的电力和蒸汽发电站。总工程师热情地与我们握手，并说道：“我们等了你们48年了。”
We walk into the Russian-built electric power and steam generating station. The chief engineer gives us all warm handshakes and says, "We've been waiting 48 years for you guys to show up."
1995年7月
July 1995
一阵热咒。全球变暖可能是真实存在的。在中西部城市，老年人正在他们潮湿的公寓里死去。我参加了一家大型城市住房管理局能源顾问的面试。
A heat spell. Global warming may be real. Elderly people are dying in their steamy apartments in the cities of the midwest. I go in for the interview to be a large metropolitan housing authority's energy consultant.
“那么您现在会采取什么措施来节省能源呢？” 他们问。
"So what would you do about energy savings now?" they ask.
“绝对没有，”我回答。“尤其是年老体弱的人，在这种天气下必须保持凉爽和舒适。贫穷不应该是死罪。如果你不能给整栋楼安装空调，请确保有足够的空调。”至少有一个人们可以去避暑的地方。今年剩下的时间里还有很多其他省钱的机会。”
"Absolutely nothing," I answer. "Especially with the elderly and infirm, they've got to be cool and comfortable in this kind of weather. Being poor shouldn't be a capital offense. If you can't air-condition the whole building, make sure that there's at least some place where people can go to cool down. There'll be plenty of other opportunities for savings during the rest of the year."
1999年春季
Spring 1999
在一个阳光明媚的下午，乘坐通勤铁路的纽伯里波特线。这是怀特祖父每天在贝弗利和波士顿之间乘坐的线路。我从未见过他，但他写了一本关于乘坐火车的小日记。火车右侧通往里维尔、林恩、塞勒姆和贝弗利的景色在他那个时代可能没有太大不同。经过北贝弗利，进入韦纳姆，风景变得美丽而英式，有连绵起伏的山丘、马场和富丽堂皇的住宅。
Riding on the Newburyport line of the commuter rail on a sunny afternoon. This is the line that Grandfather White rode daily between Beverly and Boston. I never met him, but he wrote a little journal on his train rides. The view on the right side of the train toward Revere, Lynn, Salem, and Beverly was probably not much different in his day. After North Beverly, and into Wenham, the scenery becomes beautiful and English, with rolling hills, horse farms, and stately homes.
“IP交换！” 指挥宣布。坐在我对面的那位女士，不是新手，不是学者，只是一个普通的工作人员，她对她的朋友说：“是的，我的女儿和女婿几个月前在奥地利差点被雪崩困住了……这就是全球变暖。”
"IP-swich!" the conductor announces. The lady sitting across from me, not a greenie, not an academic, just a regular working stiff, says to her friend, "Yeah, my daughter and son-in-law almost got caught in those avalanches in Austria a couple of months ago. It's that global warming."
我下了火车，驱车 1.3 英里到达 1940 年代的海角，欣赏季节性水景，迎接我的是我出色的妻子伊丽莎白。
I get off the train, drive the 1.3 miles to our 1940s cape with seasonal water views and am greeted by my wonderful wife Elizabeth.
我离开麻省理工学院已经过去十五年了。从 TRW 工厂发出的压缩空气嘶嘶作响已成为一段褪色的记忆。该建筑被拆除，为新的生物大楼腾出空间。F&T 餐厅也早已不复存在，许多麻省理工学院的学生在肯德尔广场 T 站旁的美食广场吃午餐，就像以前在 Lobdell 吃的一样。
Fifteen years have passed since I left MIT. The compressed air hissing out of the TRW plant is a faded memory. The building was torn down to make room for a new biology building. The F&T diner is long gone too, and as many MIT people eat their lunch at the food court by the Kendall Square T-stop as ever ate at Lobdell.
渐渐地，伤疤开始愈合。我偶尔还会梦见他们在预选赛中给我第二次机会。有时我会幻想申请塔夫茨大学或新罕布什尔大学的博士课程。也许每个学期选修一门课程，每门课程都获得 A，然后在十年内成为博士学位。
Little by little the scars are beginning to heal. I still have an occasional dream that they're giving me a second shot at the qualifiers. Sometimes I daydream about applying to the doctoral program at Tufts or at UNH. Maybe do one course a term, get an A in each one, and in ten years be a Ph.D.
在经历了水力发电之后、挑战者号灾难之前，我开始在一家“能源服务公司”担任合同顾问。这是很好的经历。我学会了如何绕过锅炉房，学会了如何穿过墙壁沿着管道、导管和电线，学会了空调风扇、泵和控制阀的样子。
After the hydroelectric experience and before the Challenger disaster I started working at an "energy service company" as a contract consultant. It was good experience. I learned my way around a boiler room, learned how to follow pipes, ducts, and electric lines through walls, learned what an air conditioning fan and a pump and a control valve look like.
与能源服务公司的工作很好，但由于我是合同工，公司似乎没有动力投资我。1986 年春天，罗德岛大学 (URI) 的宿舍让我安装了数百个“水部件”，以减少淋浴间的流量，这让我意识到是时候离开了。我比水管工便宜。
The work with the energy service company was good, but since I was a contract worker it seemed that the company had no incentive to invest in me. The thing that made me realize it was time to go in the spring of 1986 was when they had me install several hundred "water widgets" that reduced the flow in the showers at the dorms at the University of Rhode Island (URI). I was cheaper than a plumber.
切尔诺贝利核事故发生当天，我正在 URI 的走廊里数白炽灯泡。灯泡将被紧凑型荧光灯泡取代，这将节省约 70% 的用电量，同时提供相同的光量。当我在电视上看到勇敢的苏联消防队员蹩脚地试图扑灭失控的原子时，我觉得我在能源问题上选择了正确的一方。
I was counting incandescent light bulbs in a hallway at URI on the day of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The bulbs were to be replaced by compact fluorescent bulbs, that would produce about 70 percent savings in electric use, while giving the same amount of light. As I watched on TV the brave Soviet firefighters lamely try to douse the out-of-control atoms, I felt like I'd picked the right side of the energy issue.
那家公司的猎头将我“安排”到波士顿市中心的一家小型能源咨询公司。它是由两名哈佛学生在法语课上创立的。
From that company a headhunter "placed" me at a small energy consulting firm in downtown Boston. It had been founded by two Harvard students during French class.
我在这家咨询公司工作了六年，直到 1992 年 6 月。在电力放松管制之前，对于这些公司来说，这是一个繁荣时期，电力公司大手笔地花钱，让监管机构满意，并推迟建设新电力的需要。发电厂。公司的员工人数从 12 人增加到 80 人，我的职位也不断提升。不过，我对那里的老板从来都不满意，因为一旦你为约翰·B·海伍德和切特·杨这样的人工作过，就很难再为其他人工作了。
I worked at the consulting firm for six years, until June 1992. It was a boom time for such firms, before electric deregulation, and the electric utilities were spending money hand over fist to keep the regulators happy and to defer the need to build new power plants. The firm grew from 12 employees to 80, and I rose up the corporate ladder. I was never satisfied with my bosses there though, because once you've worked for the likes of John B. Heywood and Chet Yeung, it's hard to work for anyone else.
两件事让我确信是时候独自出去了。首先，公司在 1992 年冬春两季任命我为佛蒙特州伯灵顿分公司经理。当时只有我和该地区一位即将退休的工程师。我是他的老板。我摆脱了束缚，在那里我相信我所做的一切都必须由八个不同的人阅读、检查、修改和校对。
Two events convinced me that it was time to go out on my own. First, the company made me a branch office manager in Burlington, Vermont, in the winter and spring of 1992. It was just me and an about-to-retire engineer from the area. I was his boss. I was out of the cocoon where I had been made to believe that everything I produced had to be read, checked, modified, and proofread by eight different people.
那里的主要电力公司客户要求进行与空气压缩机相关的分析。在不到一个小时的时间里，我使用 WordPerfect for DOS 在一台旧的 NEC 286 上打印了一份不超过一页半的摘要备忘录，并将其传真给他们。他们很喜欢它，并在几个月后将其作为模型。
The primary electric utility client up there asked for an analysis relating to air compressors. In less than an hour I typed up a summary memo, no longer than a page and a half, on an old NEC 286 using WordPerfect for DOS, and faxed it to them. They loved it, and referred to it as a model for months afterward.
第二个项目是在 Sugarbush 滑雪场进行的撇池塘活动。Sugarbush 距离伯灵顿不到一个小时，我周末经常去那里。升降机操作员和造雪机械操作员在滑雪山底部用雪筑坝并建造池塘。你从距离池塘几百英尺的地方开始，向池塘滑行，并在从滑雪者滑到滑水者的过程中尽量保持平衡。我想，如果我能让自己做到这一点，那么——要么沉下去，要么浮光——我就会辞掉工作，独自出去。
The second event was the pond-skimming at the Sugarbush Ski Resort. Sugarbush is less than an hour from Burlington, and I frequented it on weekends. The lift operators and snow-making machinery operators build a dam out of snow at the bottom of the ski hill and make a pond. You start a few hundred feet above the pond, ski toward it, and try to keep your balance as you go from snow skier to water skier. If I can get myself to do this, I thought, then-sink or skim-I'll quit my job to go out on my own.
我掠过大约 40 英尺，然后向前摇晃，然后向后摇晃，然后在 100 英尺高的池塘下大约 60 英尺处面朝下摔倒。然而，我表现得很优雅，在比赛中获得了第四名，并赢得了一件漂亮的绿色波兰之春运动衫。我希望有一天能减掉足够的体重以再次适应它。
I skimmed about 40 feet, then rocked forward, then back, and then fell flat on my face about 60 feet down the 100 foot pond. However, I did it gracefully enough to come in fourth in the competition, and I won an attractive green Poland Spring sweatshirt. I'm hoping someday to lose enough weight to fit in it again.
我向波士顿咨询公司发出了通知，并以良好的条件离开了。起初，个体户的感觉就像我想象的蹦极自由落体部分一样。我这样做是为了什么？但后来一个项目进来了，然后又是另一个项目，现在八年半过去了，电话不响时我比电话响时更高兴。这样我就可以减少积压的工作。
I gave my notice to the Boston consulting firm, and I left on good terms. At first being self-employed felt like what I imagined the freefall part of bungee jumping to be like. What am I doing this for? But then a project came in, and then another, and now eight and a half years later I'm happier when the phone doesn't ring than when it does. That way I can work down my backlog.
在自营职业的自由落体阶段，我进行了我所说的“个人生活改造”。我彻底清理了我的租金管制剑桥单间公寓。我聘请了一位组织顾问，将我的工作文件整理成带有标签的悬挂文件，并开始平衡我的支票簿。我妈妈告诉我，只要你筑好巢，小画眉就会来。”
During the free-fall phase of self-employment, I undertook what I refer to as my "personal life makeover." I thoroughly cleaned my rent-controlled Cambridge studio apartment. I hired an organizational consultant, organized my work files into hanging files with tabs, and started balancing my checkbook. My mother told me that if you build the nest, the little thrush will arrive."
我的咨询项目包括偶尔的照明调查、建立 Lotus 或 Excel 电子表格模型来计算各个项目的节能效果、估算项目成本以及为设施工作人员撰写报告。我还分析公用事业数据的趋势，找到组合仪表和简化公用事业会计的方法，并寻找可以为客户节省资金的费率变化。想想看，我自己写了票。麻省理工学院允许我这样做。
My consulting projects include the occasional lighting survey, setting up Lotus or Excel spreadsheet models to calculate energy savings from various projects, estimating costs of the projects, and writing reports for the facilities staff. I also analyze trends in utility data, find ways to combine meters and streamline utility accounting, and look for rate changes that will save my clients money. Come to think of it, I wrote my own ticket. MIT allowed me to do that.
我还一直在制定计划和规范来征求承包商的投标。我首先想知道我是否有能力做到这一点，大多数擅长这方面的人自从从东北大学或温特沃斯毕业后都在传统的 A/E（建筑师/工程师）公司工作过。但我已经熟悉了 AutoCAD 电子绘图软件，并且开发了一个相当不错的规范语言库。当我意识到“计划和规格”可以翻译为“哪里/多大以及什么/如何”时，它似乎并不那么令人畏惧。另外，我发现“设计”通常只是意味着“弄清楚把东西放在哪里”。
I've also been developing plans and specifications to solicit bids from contractors. I first wondered about my ability to do thatmost of the people who are good at it have worked at traditional A/E (architect/engineer) firms since they graduated from Northeastern or Wentworth. But I've become conversant with AutoCAD electronic drafting software and I've developed a fairly good library of specification language. And when I realize that "Plans and Specifications" can be translated to "Wheres/How Bigs and Whats/Hows," it doesn't seem so daunting. Also, I've discovered that "design" often just means "figure out where to put things."
1999 年 4 月 30 日
April 30, 1999
第二十次重聚，约翰霍普金斯大学。我和一位同学交谈，他从约翰·霍普金斯大学毕业，在麻省理工学院和医学院都取得了很好的成绩。“你不够严厉，”他说。整个系统都腐败了。我的论文导师采用了我在论文研究中发现的内容，并为其申请了专利。他以此为基础成立了一家公司，然后以数百万美元的价格出售。我一分钱也没拿到。我什至聘请了律师，但发现学生从来没有打赢过这样的官司。”
Twentieth reunion, Johns Hopkins. I talk with a classmate who went on from Johns Hopkins to do very well at MIT and also in medical school. "You weren't harsh enough," he says. The whole system is corrupt. My thesis advisor took what I discovered in my thesis research and filed patents on it. He formed a company based on it and then sold it for millions of dollars. I didn't get a cent. I even hired a lawyer, but found out that a student has never won such a case."
1999 年 6 月 25 日
June 25, 1999
飞往底特律机场。我坐在靠过道的座位上。我喜欢随时可以起身去洗手间。一个男人坐在靠窗的座位上，一个女人坐在我们之间。他们似乎是夫妻。
Flying into Detroit Airport. I'm in the aisle seat. I like to be able to get up and go to the bathroom whenever I want to. A man is in the window seat and a woman is between us. They seem to be husband and wife.
我看着窗外。一条白色的溪流沿着其中一个降下的襟翼的一角流过。啊，我想。一个尖端漩涡。襟翼的尖点导致机翼上的气流加速并在尖点附近旋转。伯努利告诉我们，随着流速的增加，流体的静压会降低。当天气非常潮湿时，就像今天的底特律一样，较低的压力和随之而来的较低温度导致水蒸气的分压超过其饱和压力。出现微小液滴的云流。
I look out the window. A white stream trails the corner of one of the lowered flaps. Ah, I think. A tip vortex. The sharp point of the flap is causing the air flow over the wing to speed up and spin in the neighborhood of the point. As the flow velocity increases, Bernoulli tells us that the fluid's static pressure decreases. When it's really humid, as it is today in Detroit, the lower pressure and consequent lower temperature cause the water vapor's partial pressure to exceed its saturation pressure. A cloud-stream of minute droplets occurs.
我很想和我右边的夫妇分享这个。但不，那会很奇怪。但是，是的，丈夫正在向妻子解释这种现象。飞行员必须释放一些燃料，”他说。
I'm dying to share this with the couple to my right. But no, that would be weird. But yes the husband is explaining the phenomenon to his wife. The pilot must be releasing some fuel," he says.
放手吧，佩珀。不要为小事操心。哦拜托。你个傻冒。想一想。我们是否即将迫降而飞行员想要减少可燃烧的 JP-40 喷气燃料量？我不这么认为。西北航空公司能承受每次飞机降落时丢弃 3 美元一加仑的燃油吗？环境保护局会允许在这个拥挤的大都市区释放未燃烧的燃料吗？
Let it go, Pepper. Don't sweat the small stuff. Oh please. You idiot. Think about it. Are we about to crash land and the pilot wants to reduce the amount of JP-40 jet fuel that's available to burn? I don't think so. Can Northwest Airlines afford to throw away $3-a-gallon fuel every time a plane lands? Would the Environmental Protection Agency allow the unburned fuel to be released in this congested metropolitan area?
“对不起，我忍不住听到了，”我打断道。你看，我研究了流体力学，你观察到的现象称为尖端涡流。”我开始解释。
"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear," I interrupt. You see, I studied fluid mechanics, and the phenomenon you're observing is called a tip vortex." I launch into an explanation.
“我只知道那里有某种蒸气，”丈夫最后说道。
"All I know is there's some kind of vapor out there," the husband says at last.
1999 年 7 月 23 日
July 23, 1999
我们 1990 款福特 Escort 的空调不再工作，在我们从佛蒙特州度假回来的路上，气温已达到 90 多度。我们的巧克力实验室小狗黛西呼吸粗重。我们在一个服务站停下来，在空加仑的容器里装满水，开车时我会定期给她倒水。水的蒸发增加了热量从皮毛转移的速度，她的呼吸最终变得更加正常。
The air-conditioning in our 1990 Ford Escort doesn't work anymore, and the temperature is in the mid-90s during our drive back from our Vermont vacation. Daisy, our chocolate lab puppy, is breathing heavily. We stop at a service station, fill the empty gallon container with water, and I pour it on her regularly as we drive along. The evaporation of the water increases the rate of heat transfer away from her fur, and her breathing eventually becomes more normal.
其他人呢？我最后一次见到切特是在我请他审阅本书中的技术材料时。我对火花塞的解释全错了，这可能部分解释了为什么斯伦贝谢没有雇用我。切特现在已获得终身职位。如果有人教我如何解决问题，那就是切特。
What about the others? I last saw Chet when I asked him to review the technical material in this book. I had the spark plug explanation all wrong, which may partly explain why Schlumberger didn't hire me. Chet now has tenure. If anyone taught me how to solve problems, it was Chet, by example.
我将包括 Gyftopoulos 在内的部分的草稿发送给他供他审阅。他纠正了技术错误，但从他红色标记的语气中我感觉到了他的不满。他保留了文本的其余部分。这本书出版后，当我为麻省理工学院即将毕业的研究生做演讲时，他在观众席上，笑容满面。
I sent a draft of the sections that included Gyftopoulos to him for his review. He corrected the technical errors, but by the tone of his red marks I sensed his displeasure. He left the rest of the text alone. When after the book was published I gave a talk for outgoing graduate students at MIT he was in the audience, beaming.
1994年，我终于和尼克在一起了。我们去南波士顿海滨的No Name鱼餐厅吃午饭。“你发明了什么？” 他问我。他对我有信心，相信我可以发明东西。如果有人教我如何做一个好人，那么尼克就是我的榜样。
I finally got together with Nick in 1994. We went to the No Name fish restaurant on the South Boston waterfront for lunch. "You inventin' anything?" he asked me. He had confidence in me that I could invent things. If anyone taught me how to be a good person, it was Nick, by example.
本和我的实验室伙伴斯科特获得了博士学位，并继续在通用汽车公司工作。我希望很快能在《科学美国人》中看到他们，并以“工作背后的人”为专题报道。两台快速压缩机现已投入使用。这意味着某个24岁的小孩子正在读我的论文，也许还有这本书，作为背景材料。在技术的埃菲尔铁塔中，我是一颗铆钉，或者至少是铆钉中的一两个原子。
Ben and my lab partner Scott became Ph.Ds and went on to work at General Motors. I hope to see them in Scientific American soon, featured as "The Men Behind the Work." Two Rapid Compression Machines are now in action. Which means that some mealymouthed 24-year-old kid is reading my thesis, and maybe this book, as background material. In the Eiffel Tower of technology, I am a rivet, or at least an atom or two in a rivet.
安医生在以色列军队晋升上校军衔后退休。我最后一次见到他是 1990 年在曼哈顿。他减掉了 20 磅左右，看起来精瘦、友善，比他在麻省理工学院时看到的要健康得多。他的同胞、麻省理工学院校友比比·内塔尼亚胡仍然活跃在以色列政坛。
Doctor An retired after reaching the rank of colonel in the Israeli army. I last saw him in Manhattan in 1990. He'd lost 20 pounds or so and looked lean and kind and much healthier than he'd ever looked at MIT. His fellow countryman and MIT alum Bibi Netanyahu is still active in Israeli politics.
1986 年埃尔登毕业后不久，他的母亲不敢把他单独留在家里——他患有创伤后应激障碍。他没有参与太空计划，但他确实在洛克希德公司找到了一份自动驾驶仪编程工作。1992 年我参加了他的婚礼，几年后当我见到他和他的妻子时，他看起来很高兴。
Shortly after Eldon graduated in 1986 his mother was afraid to leave him alone in the house-he was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. He didn't make the space program, but he did get a job at Lockheed programming automatic pilots. I went to his wedding in 1992, and he seemed very happy when I saw him and his wife a couple of years after that.
黛安·米切尔 (Dianne Mitchell) 是许多高级学院男孩和女孩的综合体。我已经很久没去过斯蒂尔烤肉店了，但我知道，当我开始担任导师时，一个刚上一年级的孩子在完成本科学位后的 10 年内加入了外交部，并成为了一名大使，另一个则去了88年奥运会女子水手队成员，现在是电气工程教授。高级住宅本身已被修复，墙壁艺术也已永远消失。
Dianne Mitchell is a composite of many Senior House boys and girls. I haven't been to Steer Roast in a long time, but I know that a kid that was a freshman when I started as a tutor joined the Foreign Service and became an ambassador within 10 years of completing his undergraduate degree, and another went to the '88 Olympics on the women's crew team and is now a professor of electrical engineering. Senior House itself has been gutrehabbed and the wall art has been lost forever.
根据共同朋友的最新报告，斯蒂芬妮已婚并居住在芝加哥地区。
At last report from a mutual friend, Stephanie was married and living in the Chicago area.
还有玛丽。好吧，在男性主导的工程领域，我试图斥责自己和他人的性别歧视。可能有点晚了，但我告诉她有一天我会尽力补偿她。
And Mary. Well, in the male-dominated world of engineering, I try to rebuke sexism in myself and others. It may be a little late, but I told her I'd try to make it up to her someday.
我努力表现得无辜。我努力做一个好人。我尽量不成为一个自我主义者。我尝试像人一样思考。
I try to be innocent. I try to be a nice person. I try not to be an egotist. I try to think like a human being.
章节注释
Chapter Notes
第1章
CHAPTER 1
波浪上划独木舟问题。对于水波的视觉理解，请参阅流体力学实验插图（国家流体力学电影委员会电影笔记），（马萨诸塞州剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1972 年）。该书的第 105 章题为“流体中的波”，由哈佛大学的 Arthur E. Bryson 编写。讨论水波的书籍包括 John A. Knaus 所著的《物理海洋学导论》（Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978）；《海洋流体动力学》，作者：JN Newman（马萨诸塞州剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1977 年）；《船舶和近海结构的海上载荷》，作者：0. M. Faltinsen（马萨诸塞州剑桥：剑桥大学出版社，1990 年）。
The Canoeing on Waves Problem. For visual understanding of water waves, consult Illustrated Experiments in Fluid Mechanics (the National Committee on Fluid Mechanics Films book of film notes), (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972.) The film, described on p. 105 of the book, is entitled Waves in Fluids, and was produced by Arthur E. Bryson of Harvard University. Books that discuss water waves include introduction to Physical Oceanography, by John A. Knaus, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1978); Marine Hydrodynamics, by J. N. Newman (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977), and Sea Loads on Ships and Offshore Structures, by 0. M. Faltinsen (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
热煮鸡蛋问题。这是一个非稳态热传导问题。“不稳定”是指在整个鸡蛋中，每个点的温度随时间而变化。如果把鸡蛋从冷水中拿出来，会感觉很热，直到整个鸡蛋冷却为止。Rohsenow 和 Choi 所著的《热、质量和动量传递》（Englewood Cliffs，NJ：Prentice Hall，1961），第 110-19 页讨论了各种几何形状中的非稳态热传导。
The Hot Hard-Boiled Egg Problem. This is an unsteady heat conduction problem. "Unsteady" means that throughout the egg, the temperature at each point changes with time. If you take the egg out of the cold water, it will feel hot until the whole egg is cooled off. Unsteady heat conduction in various geometries is discussed in Heat, Mass, and Momentum Transfer, by Rohsenow and Choi (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1961), pp. 110-19.
第2章
CHAPTER 2
流体力学。当我考 2.25 时，有人推荐了 Potter and Foss 所著的《流体力学》（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1975 年）作为参考。还推荐了 DJ Tritton 的《物理流体动力学》（纽约：Van Nostrand Reinhold，1977 年）。
Fluid Mechanics. The text Fluid Mechanics, by Potter and Foss (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1975) was recommended as a reference when I took 2.25. Also recommended was Physical Fluid Dynamics, by D. J. Tritton (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977).
热力学。有关 Gyftopoulos 讲座中描述的热力学原理和概念定义的进一步阐述，请参阅：Hatsopoulos 和 Keenan 所著的《一般热力学原理》（Malabar，佛罗里达州：Krieger Publishing [最初由 John Wiley & Sons 出版，1965 年]） ）；Elias P. Gyftopoulos 和 Gian Paolo Beretta 的热力学、基础和应用（纽约：Macmillan，1991）；以及 Hatsopoulos、Gyftopoulos 和 Keenan 在《大英百科全书》中题为“热力学原理”的文章。为了节省您去图书馆的时间，下面定义了一些术语。定义取自课程 2.45 1 的讲义和/或课堂讲义，或注明的地方取自《麦格劳希尔科学技术术语词典》第二版。
Thermodynamics. For further elaboration on the thermodynamic principles and definitions of concepts described in the lectures by Gyftopoulos, refer to: Principles of General Thermodynamics, by Hatsopoulos and Keenan, (Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Publishing [originally published by John Wiley & Sons, 1965] ); Thermodynamics, Foundations and Applications by Elias P. Gyftopoulos and Gian Paolo Beretta (New York: Macmillan, 1991); and the article in Encyclopaedia Britannica entitled "Thermodynamics, Principles of," by Hatsopoulos, Gyftopoulos, and Keenan. To save you a trip to the library, some terms are defined below. Definitions are drawn from lecture notes and/or class handouts for course 2.45 1, or where noted, from the McGraw Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 2nd Edition.
状态：系统在某一时刻的状况，包括关于该时刻可以在系统上执行的任何测量或观察的结果的所有内容。
State: The condition of a system at an instant in time, which encompasses all that can be said about the results of any measurements or observations that can be performed on the system at that instant in time.
系统：任何可识别的物质集合，可以通过明确定义的表面与其他所有物体分开，以便“系统”与其他所有物体之间的相互作用可以通过表面上的传输过程来描述。
System: Any identifiable collection of matter that can be separated from everything else by a well-defined surface so that the interaction between the "system" and everything else may be described by transfer processes across the surface.
熵：根据麦格劳希尔科学技术术语词典，熵是“热力学系统状态的函数，其在任何微分可逆过程中的变化等于系统从周围环境吸收的热量除以绝对温度系统的。也称为热电荷。”
Entropy: According to the McGraw Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, entropy is "a function of the state of a thermodynamic system whose change in any differential reversible process is equal to the heat absorbed by the system from its surroundings divided by the absolute temperature of the system. Also known as thermal charge."
能量：再次来自麦格劳·希尔：“工作的能力。” 严格来说，从热力学的角度来看，麦格劳希尔的定义是不正确的，因为能量可以分为热能和所有其他能量。热能的特点是并非所有热能都可用于做功。热力学第二定律有一个限制。2.451 笔记用了八页来定义能量，所以进一步阅读绝对是有必要的。
Energy: Again from McGraw Hill: "the capacity for doing work." Strictly speaking from a thermodynamics point of view, the McGraw Hill definition is not correct because energy may be classified as thermal energy and all other energy. Thermal energy has the distinction that not all of it is available for doing work. There is a limitation imposed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The 2.451 notes spent eight pages defining energy, so further reading is definitely in order.
属性：任何数量，其值取决于系统的状态而不是历史；对于给定的状态，属性的值可以通过某种类型的测量来确定。
Property: Any quantity the value of which depends on the state but not the history of the system; for a given state the value of a property can be determined by some type of measurement.
焓：来自麦格劳希尔：“系统的内能加上系统体积乘以周围环境施加在系统上的压力的乘积的总和。”
Enthalpy: From McGraw Hill: "The sum of the internal energy of a system plus the product of the system's volume multiplied by the pressure exerted on the system by its surroundings."
稳定平衡状态：只能通过在环境中留下净效应的相互作用来改变的平衡状态。
Stable equilibrium state: An equilibrium state that can only be altered by interactions that leave net effects in the environment.
温度：来自麦格劳希尔：“物体的一种属性，当物体与另一个物体热接触时，它决定热流的方向；热量从较高温度的区域流向较低温度的区域。
Temperature: From McGraw Hill: "A property of an object which determines the direction of heat flow when the object is placed in thermal contact with another object; heat flows from a region of higher temperature to one of lower temperature.
压力：来自 McGraw Hill：“一种在所有方向上均匀施加的应力；其度量是每单位面积的力。”
Pressure: From McGraw Hill: "A type of stress which is exerted uniformly in all directions; its measure is the force per unit area."
可用能量：系统在某种状态下的属性，参考恒定的温度和压力的环境；可用能量是可以从系统和参考环境的组合中提取的最大有用功。
Available Energy: A property of a system at a state, in reference to an environment of constant temperature and pressure; available energy is the maximum useful work that can be extracted from the combination of the system and the referenced environment.
下面列出了 MIT 一般环境中使用的其他术语。
Other terms in use in the general MIT environment are listed below.
Flush（动词）：明确拒绝。
Flush (verb): To reject unequivocally.
Flame（动词）：有力地论证一种观点。
Flame (verb): To argue a point of view forcefully.
Cruisillate（巡航 + 振荡，动词）： 运行得非常快。用于描述电子芯片。
Cruisillate (cruise + oscillate, verb): To function very fast. Used in describing electronic chips.
工具（动词）：努力学习；（名词）学习非常努力的人。
Tool (verb): to study very hard; (noun) one who studies very hard.
Power Tool（动词）：努力学习；（名词）学习非常努力的人。
Power Tool (verb) : to study very hard; (noun) one who studies very hard.
Bogossify（bogus + ossify，动词）：伪造，如实验室项目的结果。
Bogossify (bogus + ossify, verb): To fake, as in results for a laboratory project.
Bogosity（虚假+逸度，名词）：虚假的状态。
Bogosity (bogus + fugacity, noun): State of being bogus.
圣经（名词）：课程笔记本，3 到 4 英寸厚，包括习题集的解决方案、讲义和过去的考试。
Bible (noun): Notebook for a course, 3 to 4 inches thick, including worked-out solution sets to problem sets, lecture notes, and past exams.
油脂（名词）：寻求全学院学生选举办公室的具有政治倾向的人。见贪污者。
Grease (noun): A politically oriented person seeking institutewide student elective office. See embezzler.
地铁冲浪：在波士顿 MBTA 红线上骑行，站着，不抓住任何东西。
Subway Surfing: Riding on the Boston MBTA Red Line, standing up, without holding onto anything.
通宵达旦：麻省理工学院版本的通宵达旦。
All-weeker: MIT's version of an all-nighter.
虽然给出了定义，但“Kvel”是意第绪语，表示一种极度自豪感，就像父母看到孩子从麻省理工学院毕业一样。
And while definitions are being offered, "Kvel" is Yiddish for a sense of extreme pride, as when a parent sees a child graduate from MIT.
封闭房间中的燃油燃烧问题。我对问题前半部分的看法是正确的。如果房间完全绝缘和密封，则能量不会变化，质量也不会变化。
Oil Burning in Closed Room Problem. I was right about the first half of the problem. If the room were perfectly insulated and sealed, there would be no change in energy and no change in mass.
问题的第二部分更棘手：“如果最大的能量转移到环境中，油气混合物和燃烧产物之间的质量变化是多少？”
The second part of the question was trickier: "What is the change in mass between the oil-air mixture and the products of combustion if the maximum energy is transferred to the environment?"
他们希望我们引用爱因斯坦著名的方程：E = mc2。如果所有燃烧的热量都通过房间的墙壁传导，则房间中的能量将因燃烧而减少，从而房间内物质的质量将减少。
They wanted us to invoke Einstein's famous equation: E = mc2. If all the heat of combustion were conducted through the walls of the room, the energy in the room would be reduced by the combustion, and thus the mass of the contents of the room would be reduced.
问题首先是求燃烧能量：
The problem is first to find the energy of combustion:
因此，房间内物品的质量确实下降了，大约下降了十分之七毫克。由于没有掌握这一技巧，我在习题集上丢了 3 分（满分 50 分）。
So the mass of the contents of the room did decline, by about seven-tenths of a milligram. I lost 3 points out of 50 on the problem set for missing that trick.
第3章
CHAPTER 3
汽油和鸡蛋问题。问题是确定需要多少鸡蛋来喂养人类来抽水，以及需要多少汽油。
The Gasoline and Egg Problem. The problem was to determine how many eggs would be required to feed the human to pump the water, and also to see how much gasoline would be required.
首先，计算与将水从井底提升相关的势能变化。
First, calculate the change in potential energy associated with lifting the water up from the bottom of the well.
为了找到所需的鸡蛋数量，我们需要将千克卡路里转换为焦耳，并考虑到人类原动机 25% 的效率。
To find the number of eggs required, we need to convert from kg-calories to joules, and to take into account the 25 percent efficiency of the human prime mover.
所需鸡蛋数量 =
Number of eggs required =
汽油消耗量可类似地计算：
The gasoline consumption can be calculated similarly:
本例中的能源成本比率为：
The ratio of energy costs in this example is:
鸡蛋作为燃料的成本是汽油成本的12.3倍。接下来，我们需要计算骑车人的劳动力成本。假设这是一名强壮的自行车手，可以连续产生约 1/4 马力，即约 190 瓦，则泵出所有水所需的时间为：
The cost of eggs as a fuel is 12.3 times the cost of gasoline. Next, we need to calculate the labor cost of the cyclist. Assuming this is a strong cyclist and can generate about 1/4 horsepower continuously, or about 190 watts, the time required to pump all the water would be:
按每小时 4 美元计算，这一成本约为 200 美元。
This cost comes to about $200, at $4 per hour.
接下来，计算保护波斯湾油田所需的军事成本。每天增加的成本为 10 亿美元，加上每条生命损失的成本为 100,000 美元，乘以 X 条生命损失……呃哦。我又开始政治正确了。羞耻羞耻羞耻羞耻。当然，如果这是用插图手稿写的，而不是在使用 200 瓦的个人电脑上写的，在三盏 75 瓦的灯下，办公室里还有大约 300 瓦的其他照明，让我在周六工作时感到安全，那么好吧，我可能还有更多的立足点。
Next, calculate the cost of the military might required to secure the oil fields in the Persian Gulf. At an incremental cost of $1 billion per day, plus a cost of, say, $100,000 per life lost, times X lives lost.... Uh-oh. There I go being politically correct again. Shame shame shame shame shame. Of course, if this were written by illuminated manuscript rather than on a personal computer using 200 watts, under three 75 watt lights, with about 300 watts of other lighting on in the office to make me feel secure while working on a Saturday, well then, I might have more of a leg to stand on.
三块问题。问题陈述是：“有三个相同的金属块。最初它们的温度分别为 300、500 和 700 K（开尔文）。对于每个块，稳定平衡态的内能和温度之间的关系由下式给出：关系：
The Three Block Problem. The problem statement was: "Three identical blocks of metal are available. Initially they are at temperatures 300, 500, and 700 K (Kelvin). For each of the blocks, the relation between internal energy and temperature of stable equilibrium states is given by the relation:
“U = Uo + C * T，其中 C 是热容量，T 是开尔文温度。假设 C = 10 焦耳/开氏度（答案与 C 无关）。
"U = Uo + C * T, where C is the heat capacity and T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin. Let's say C = 10 joule/Degree K (the answer is independent of C).
“如果允许块之间通过循环机械进行相互作用，但不允许块与环境之间的相互作用，那么其中一个块可以达到的最高温度是多少？”
"If interactions via cyclic machinery between blocks are allowed but interactions between the blocks and the environment are not, what is the maximum temperature that can be reached by one of the blocks?"
Gyftopoulos和Beretta教授给我的提示如下：
The hint that Professors Gyftopoulos and Beretta gave me was as follows:
在该过程结束时，两个块将具有相同的温度，并且一个块将具有最高的可用温度。如果两个块的温度不同，则可以使用循环机械进一步提高第三个块的温度。如果所有过程都是可逆的（没有熵增加），将获得第三块的最高温度。
At the end of the process, two blocks will have the same temperature, and one block will have the highest available temperature. If the two blocks did not have the same temperature, the cyclic machinery could be used to raise the temperature of the third block further. The highest temperature of the third block will be obtained if all processes are reversible (there is no entropy increase).
描述这个问题的场景绝不是要对吉夫托普洛斯教授产生负面影响，而是要展示一个学生被麻省理工学院的压力和卓越标准压垮的例子。麻省理工学院有很多优秀的老师，吉夫托普洛斯教授就是其中之一。在他的讲座中，我多次感到起鸡皮疙瘩，因为他清晰地呈现材料的方式，材料的性质以及它如何与我的节能兴趣相吻合，以及他的热情。
The scene in which this problem was described is meant in no way to reflect negatively on Professor Gyftopoulos, but rather to present an example of a student's being overwhelmed by the pressure and standards of excellence at MIT. There are great teachers at MIT, and Professor Gyftopoulos is one of them. On numerous occasions during his lectures I had goose bumps from both the way he clearly presented the material, and from the nature of the material and how it coincided with my energy-conservation interests, and from his enthusiasm.
板冷却问题。再次参见 Rohsenow 和 Choi，热、质量和动量传递，第 143-53 页。提出了具有均匀温度分布的平板的情况。WM Rohsenow 和 James P. Harnett 所著的《Handbook of Heat Transfer》（纽约：McGrawHill，1973 年）第 159-160 页中介绍了均匀热通量案例。
Plate Cooling Problem. Again refer to Rohsenow and Choi, Heat, Mass and Momentum Transfer, pp. 143-53. Presented there is the case of a flat plate with a uniform temperature distribution. The uniform heat flux case is presented in Handbook of Heat Transfer, by W. M. Rohsenow and James P. Harnett (New York: McGrawHill, 1973), pp. 159-160.
另请注意，第 14 页。Rohsenow 和 Choi 的 117 给出了一个例子，说明理论问题（例如无限平板）的解决方案可以应用于实际系统（火箭发动机燃烧室的壁）。壁是一个圆柱壳，壁厚比直径小，按无限平板计算。
Also note, on p. 117 of Rohsenow and Choi, an example of when the solution of a theoretical problem, such as the infinite flat plate, can be applied to a real system, the wall of a rocket motor combustion chamber. The wall is a cylindrical shell, with a wall thickness that is small compared to the diameter, and is calculated as an infinite flat plate.
第 4 章
CHAPTER 4
运动死亡。Senior House T 恤的设计来自 Hunter S. Thompson 博士所著的《Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72》（旧金山：Straight Arrow Books，1973 年）的封面。《Sport Death》的设计与托马斯·W·本顿 (Thomas W. Benton) 的封面设计相同，不同之处在于《Sport Death》头骨的眼睛里没有纳粹十字记号，而且本顿的设计在牙齿上没有任何清晰的文字。在汤普森博士的介绍中，第 17 页，麻省理工学院图书馆的这本书的页边空白处用铅笔写着“运动死亡”，紧挨着这个（此处略有删节）段落：
Sport Death. The design on the Senior House T-shirt is from the cover of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973). The Sport Death design is identical to the cover design, by Thomas W. Benton, with the exception that the Sport Death skull doesn't have swastikas in the eyes, and the Benton design doesn't have anything legible written in the teeth. In Dr. Thompson's introduction, on page 17, "Sport Death" is written in pencil in the margin in the MIT library's copy of the book, next to this (here slightly abridged) paragraph:
自称了解长耳大野兔的人会告诉你，它们的主要动机是恐惧、愚蠢和疯狂。但我在长耳大野兔的国家呆了足够长的时间，知道它们中的大多数都过着相当乏味的生活。他们对日常生活感到厌倦：吃饭……睡觉，时不时在灌木丛中跳来跳去。……难怪他们中的一些人偶尔会陷入廉价的刺激之中；蹲在路边，等待下一组车头灯出现，然后以瞬间的速度冲出灌木丛，穿过几英寸远的另一边，一定会产生强烈的肾上腺素激增的感觉超速行驶的前轮前方。
People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jackrabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat ... sleep, hop around a bush now and then. ... No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenaline rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels.
第 11 章注释中将有更多关于运动死亡的内容。
There will be more on Sport Death in the Chapter 11 notes.
伯努利方程。参见 Potter 和 Foss，《流体力学》，第 4955 页。丹尼尔·伯努利 (Daniel Bernoulli) 在其 1738 年出版的《流体动力学》一书中提出的伯努利方程是流体力学一般方程（纳维-斯托克斯方程）的一个特例。它适用于稳定（不随时间变化）、无粘性（非粘性）、无旋（无漩涡）、不可压缩流。除了化油器外，它还适用于曲线球、香水吸气器和飞机机翼等。实际的等式是：
Bernoulli Equation. See Potter and Foss, Fluid Mechanics, pp. 4955. The Bernoulli equation, stated by Daniel Bernoulli in his 1738 book Hydrodynamica, is a special case of the general equations of fluid mechanics, the Navier-Stokes equations. It applies to steady (no variation with time), inviscid (not viscous), irrotational (no whirlpools), incompressible flow. Besides the carburetor, it also applies to things like curveballs, perfume aspirators, and airplane wings. The actual equation is:
其中 P 是流体压力，p 是流体密度，g 是重力加速度常数，z 是流体高度，v 是流体速度。
where P is fluid pressure, p is fluid density, g is gravitational acceleration constant, z is the height of the fluid, and v is the fluid velocity.
《美国百科全书》指出丹尼尔·伯努利是瑞士人，出生于荷兰格罗宁根。他是瑞士巴塞尔大学的解剖学教授。由于他不是意大利人（正如他的名字所暗示的那样），而是瑞士人，因此他不太可能（a）在佛罗伦萨有一个开珠宝店的表弟，或者（b）接受美第奇或斯福尔扎基金会的资助。然而，我们在学习过程中并不知道这一点，所以这个图像是有道理的。
In Encyclopaedia Americana it is noted that Daniel Bernoulli was Swiss, born in Groningen, Netherlands. He was a professor of anatomy at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Since he was not Italian as his name suggests, but rather Swiss, it is unlikely that he either (a) had a cousin with a jewelry shop in Florence or (b) received funding from the Medici or Sforza foundations. We did not know this at our study session, however, so the image made sense.
化油器。关于真实化油器的讨论参见 CF Taylor 所著的《内燃机》，第 1 卷。2，第 193 页。该书中描述的真实化油器与此处描述的区别在于，在真实化油器中，空气被认为是可压缩的，而我们假设空气是不可压缩的。有关化油器的简单描述，请参阅 David Macaulay 所著的《The Way Things Work》（波士顿：Houghton Mifflin，1988 年），第 17 页。148.
The Carburetor. A discussion of a real carburetor is in The Internal Combustion Engine, by C. F. Taylor, Vol. 2, pp. 193ff. The difference between the real carburetors described in that book and what is described in here is that in real carburetors, the air is considered compressible, whereas we assumed the air was incompressible. For a simple description of a carburetor, see The Way Things Work, by David Macaulay (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 148.
在这种情况下，伯努利方程的要点是，当流体加速时，其静压（如果将气压计放在管壁上，您会读取到的压力）会下降。由于收缩时流动速度加快，静压确实下降，低于大气压，并且大气压下的液体被加速的空气产生的真空吸入。
The main point of the Bernoulli equation in this case is that when the fluid speeds up, its static pressure (the pressure you would read if you put a barometer on the wall of the tube) goes down. Since the flow speeds up in the contraction, the static pressure does go down, below atmospheric pressure, and the liquid, at atmospheric pressure, is sucked in by the vacuum created by the sped up air.
仅看空气侧，方程为：
Just looking at the air side, the equations are:
连续性：
Continuity:
伯努利：
Bernoulli:
茶叶问题。有关这方面的更多信息，请参阅《流体力学实验插图》，第 17 页。97. 这部名为《Secondary Flow》的电影由麻省理工学院的爱德华·泰勒教授制作。
The Tea Leaf Problem. For more on this, refer to Illustrated Experiments in Fluid Mechanics, p. 97. The film, entitled Secondary Flow, was produced by Professor Edward Taylor of MIT.
消防站问题。问题是：“如果每个消防员都能提供 125 磅的水平力，需要多少名消防员才能握住以每秒 100 英尺、每分钟 800 加仑的速度喷出的消防水龙带？”
The Firehouse Problem. The question was: "How many firemen will it take to hold on to a fire hose shooting out 800 gallons per minute at 100 feet per second, if each is capable of providing a horizontal force of 125 pounds?"
限制软管所需的力等于质量流量乘以软管流出的速度。首先，将所有内容转换为公制单位：
The force required to restrain the hose will be equal to the mass flow rate times the velocity going out of the hose. First, convert everything to metric units:
第 5 章
CHAPTER 5
河中管子问题。通过建造类似风车的水下涡轮机，您可以从流动的河流中提取电力，而无需建造水坝。这将能够提取流过涡轮叶片扫过的圆形区域的能量的 16/27，即 59%。有关常规风车限制的讨论，请参阅《风力发电和其他能源选择》，作者：David Rittenhouse Inglis，（安娜堡：密歇根大学出版社，1978 年），第 17 页。248. 水下涡轮机可产生的最大功率为：
The Tube in the River Problem. You could extract power from a flowing river without building a dam by constructing an underwater turbine resembling a windmill. This would be able to extract 16/27, or 59 percent of the energy flowing through the circular area swept by the turbine blades. For a discussion of this limit for regular windmills, see Wind Power and Other Energy Options, by David Rittenhouse Inglis, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1978), p. 248. The maximum power that could be derived from an underwater turbine would be:
第 6 章
CHAPTER 6
辐射传热。请参阅 Rohsenow 和 Choi，热、质量和动量传递，第 1 章。13. 另请参阅《热辐射传热》，第 2 版，作者：Siegel 和 Howell（纽约：Hemisphere Publishing，1981）。
Radiation Heat Transfer. Refer to Rohsenow and Choi, Heat, Mass and Momentum Transfer, Ch. 13. Also refer to Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, 2nd ed., by Siegel and Howell (New York: Hemisphere Publishing, 1981).
第7章
CHAPTER 7
以下是一些与本书的流程不太相符的事后想法。首先，我从麻省理工学院的各种技术人员和机械师那里得到了很多支持和实践教育。尼克是所有这些人的综合体。
Here are a couple of afterthoughts that didn't really fit in the flow of the book. First, I derived a lot of support and hands-on education from various technicians and machinists at MIT. Nick is a composite of all of these people.
其次，当我进行实验时，电话另一端友好的销售人员的声音会帮助我解决一些设计问题。我现在工作的咨询工程领域似乎也是如此。我，工程师，接受供应商的教育，他们可能是也可能不是工程师，但他们已经全面了解了他们的产品如何适应更大的系统。
Second, when I was putting the experiment together, friendly salesmen's voices on the other end of the line would help me work my way through some of the design problems. And so it seems to be in the consulting engineering world I work in now. I, the engineer, am educated by the vendors, who may or may not be engineers, but who have been thoroughly briefed on how their products fit within larger systems.
最后，当我在实验中将“设计”这个词翻译成“弄清楚把东西放在哪里”和/或“弄清楚东西应该有多大”时，我对这个词的恐惧就少了很多。
Finally, I became a lot less scared of the word design when I translated it to, in the context of my experiment, "figuring out where to put things," and/or "figuring out how big things should be."
与我的实验有关的一些定义：
Some definitions pertaining to my experiment:
测试矩阵。用于增强人们对过程的了解的一组实验。例如，如果您认为两个变量（例如气缸中的初始空气温度和空气运动量）会影响第三个结果（例如柴油点燃所需的时间），您可以构造一些看起来像抽搐的东西tac-toe板如下图：
Test Matrix. The set of experiments used to enhance one's knowledge about a process. For example, if you think two variables, such as initial air temperature in the cylinder and amount of air motion, affect a third result, such as the time it takes the diesel fuel to ignite, you could construct something that looks like a tic-tac-toe board as shown below:
延迟时间是实验变化的输入、空气运动和温度的输出。
The delay times are the outputs of the experimentally varied inputs, air motion, and temperature.
湍流水平。也称为湍流强度，它在 JB Heywood 的《内燃机基础知识》（纽约：McGraw-Hill，1988 年）第 14 页中定义。331，作为“湍流中瞬时流体速度的波动分量的均方根值”。湍流强度衡量流动的混乱程度；河流中的急流比平滑的笔直河段具有更高的湍流强度。
Turbulence Level. Also known as turbulence intensity, this is defined in Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals, by J. B. Heywood (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988), p. 331, as "the root mean square value of the fluctuating component of the instantaneous fluid velocity in a turbulent flow." Turbulence intensity is a measure of how chaotic a flow is; rapids in a river have higher turbulence intensity than smooth, straight stretches.
漩涡速率。空气在发动机气缸内旋转的速率。
Swirl Rates. The rate at which air spins within the engine's cylinder.
参数影响。参考上面的测试矩阵，参数是温度和空气运动。这些参数根据实验的输入而变化，以查看对实验输出的影响，在本例中为点火延迟时间。
Parametric Influences. Referring to the test matrix above, the parameters are temperature and air motion. These parameters are varied on the input of the experiment, to see the influence on the output of the experiment, in this case the ignition delay time.
点火延迟。柴油发动机中燃油开始喷射和燃油开始燃烧之间的时间。
Ignition Delay. The time between the start of fuel injection and the start of combustion of the fuel in a diesel engine.
引擎。有关发动机工作原理的更多讨论，请参阅 David Macaulay 所著的《The Way Things Work》，第 164-65 页。或者，有关更多技术讨论，请参阅 CF Taylor 的《内燃机理论与实践》（马萨诸塞州剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1960 年和 1966 年 [第 1 卷]、1968 年 [第 2 卷]），或《内燃机基础知识》，作者：JB 海伍德。此外，Lyle Cummins 的《Internal Fire》（如康明斯发动机公司）可从汽车工程师协会获取（邮寄 34 美元至 Department 2414；SAE；400 Commonwealth Drive；Warrendale, PA 15096）。
Engines. For more discussion of how engines work, consult The Way Things Work, by David Macaulay, pp. 164-65. Or for more technical discussion, consult The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice by C. F. Taylor (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1960 and 1966 [Vol. 1], 1968 [Vol. 2]), or Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals, by J. B. Heywood. Also, Internal Fire, by Lyle Cummins (as in Cummins Engine Company), is available from the Society of Automotive Engineers (mail $34 to Department 2414; SAE; 400 Commonwealth Drive; Warrendale, PA 15096).
滑轮。再次参见事物运作方式，第 58-65 页。
Pulleys. Again, see The Way Things Work, pp. 58-65.
第 8 章
CHAPTER 8
蒸汽机。再次参见事物运作方式，第 166-67 页。基本上，热源，无论是煤火、天然气火、油火、核裂变还是聚焦阳光，都会像茶壶一样将水煮沸。蒸汽压力随着加热而增加，高压蒸汽推动汽轮机叶片。当蒸汽推动涡轮叶片时，它会冷却并降低压力，并被吸入冷凝器，在冷凝器中被附近湖泊、海洋或冷却塔的水冷却。然后水被泵回锅炉，再次变成蒸汽。这都是在 1700 年代末发展起来的。起初，他们没有单独的冷凝器，然后在 1765 年，瓦特发现如果添加这些冷凝器，他们会节省大量燃料。然后，大约 1800 年，特雷维希克 (Trevithick) 增加了高压蒸汽的创新，因此可以将更多的动力装入更小的发动机中。
Steam Engine. See again The Way Things Work, pp. 166-67. Basically, a heat source, either a coal, gas, or oil fire, a nuclear fission, or focused sunlight, boils water as in a teakettle. The steam pressure increases as it's heated, and the high-pressure steam pushes on steam turbine blades. As the steam pushes on the turbine blades it cools and drops in pressure and is sucked into the condenser, where it is cooled by water from the nearby lake or ocean or cooling tower. The water then is pumped back into the boiler, where it again becomes steam. This was all developed in the late 1700s. At first, they didn't have separate condensers, and then in 1765 Watt figured out they'd save a lot of fuel if they added those. And then about 1800 Trevithick added the innovation of high-pressure steam, so more power could be packed into a smaller engine.
“乒乓球”电子游戏的发明。据我足球队的守门员说，他在 1974 年参加了 6.111（数字电子实验室）课程，这款游戏是他参加课程时作为班级项目发明的。课后他没有关于该发明发生了什么的更多数据。
"Pong " video game invention. According to the goalie on my soccer team, who took 6.111, the digital electronics lab, in 1974, this game was invented as a class project when he took the class. He has no more data on what happened to the invention after the class.
气球问题。正文中提出的气球问题被简化为不可压缩流动的情况，并且没有与通过孔口的流动相关的能量损失。这个简化示例的方程如下所示：
Balloon Problem. The balloon problem presented in the main text is simplified to a case with incompressible flow and with no energy losses associated with the flow through the orifice. The equations for this simplified example are presented below:
第9章
CHAPTER 9
自行车比赛突围的例子涉及到一个具有更好信息流的系统，因此具有更低的熵和更高的效率，暗示了信息论在热力学中的应用。有关此主题的进一步阅读，请参阅《Therstatics and Thermodynamics：Antroduction to Energy, Information, and States of Matter, with Engineering Applications》，作者：Myron Tribus，（新泽西州普林斯顿：Van Nostrand，1961）。
The example of the bicycle race breakaway as it relates to a system with better information flow and hence lower entropy and higher efficiency alludes to the application of information theory to thermodynamics. For further reading on this subject, refer to Thermostatics and Thermodynamics: An introduction to Energy, Information, and States of Matter, with Engineering Applications, by Myron Tribus, (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1961).
第10章
CHAPTER 10
第一个有趣的轶事。诺伯特·韦纳（Norbert Weiner）是本世纪初麻省理工学院的天才，他在教授微积分课时，一名学生要求他做黑板上的一道家庭作业。韦纳教授看着课本上的问题，在脑子里做了一遍，然后把答案写在了黑板上。勇敢的学生接着问道：“你能用其他方法吗？” 韦纳教授又看了一遍书上的问题陈述，用另一种方式在脑子里思考，并在黑板上写下了同样的答案。
First Amusing Anecdote. Norbert Weiner, MIT genius from earlier in the century, was teaching a calculus class when one of the students asked him to do one of the homework problems on the board. Professor Weiner looked at the problem in the textbook, did it in his head, and wrote the answer on the board. The intrepid student then asked, "Could you do that another way?" Professor Weiner again looked at the problem statement in the book, did it in his head another way, and wrote the same answer on the board.
第11章
CHAPTER 11
更多关于运动死亡的信息。这需要一点挖掘。“运动死亡”一词是由一位来自亚利桑那州的地质学学生引入高级学院和麻省理工学院的，他是从约塞米蒂国家公园和西部其他攀岩地点的攀岩者和跳伞运动员那里学到这个词的。这件 T 恤出现在 76-77 学年，当时 Runkle 4th 和 5th 的几名学生提出了这个想法。事实上，他们当时正在阅读亨特·汤普森的书（《72 年竞选之路上的恐惧与厌恶》），而在该书的图书馆副本的页边空白处铅笔提到的“运动死亡”实际上是带来这两张图像的联系一起在衬衫上。Runkle四楼的那幅画是在T恤出现一段时间后画的。
More on Sport Death. This took a little digging. The term Sport Death was imported to Senior House and MIT by a geology student from Arizona, who had picked it up from rock climbers and parachutists at Yosemite and other rock-climbing sites out West. The T-shirt appeared in the academic year '76-'77, when several students on Runkle 4th and 5th had the idea. They were in fact reading the Hunter Thompson book at the time (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72) and the reference to Sport Death penciled in the margin of the library copy of the book was in fact the connection that brought the two images together on the shirt. The painting on the fourth floor of Runkle was painted some time after the T-shirt appeared.
与我交谈过的一些十年前的高级学院校友也对麻省理工学院说了一些有趣的事情，他们的一些评论如下：
Some of the Senior House alums of ten or so years ago who I talked to had interesting things to say about MIT as well, and some of their comments follow:
贝克之家的真实故事已经结束。那就是他们死于孤独的地方。除此之外，真正的故事是，这些在学生时期可怜的傻瓜，在适应不良的成年人后仍然可怜。男人们会尽可能地娶第一批女人，但由于他们从未学习过任何社交或人际技能，他们发现自己陷入了低层管理工作。哈佛也一样糟糕，但你必须记住这些人在青春期时在做什么。哈佛的孩子们是通过校报编辑、学生会成员之类的身份进入那里的，而麻省理工学院的大多数人一直都在学习科学和数学，所以他们的成绩和 SAT 成绩会很糟糕。足以让他们进入麻省理工学院。
The real story is over at Baker House. That's where they die of loneliness. And then beyond that the real story is that these dweebs who were pathetic as students stay pathetic as maladjusted adults. The men marry the first women they can, and since they never learned any social or human skills, they find themselves stuck in low-level management jobs. Harvard's just as bad, but you have to remember what these people were doing while they were going through puberty. The kids at Harvard got in there by being editor of the school newspaper and being on the student council and stuff like that, while most of the people at MIT were just studying their science and math all the time, so their grades and SAT's would be good enough to get them into MIT.
来自向我讲述运动死亡故事的校友：
And from the alumna who told me the Sport Death story:
我的两个朋友在那里自杀了。这就是我们中的一些人创办 Nightline 的原因之一，这是一种电话服务，您可以在绝望的时候拨打电话与某人交谈。我认为发生这种情况有几个原因，除了孤独和紧张的工作氛围之外。许多学生都在天才和疯狂之间划清界限，有些人则反复跨越这条界限：就高级学院而言，也许药物在某些情况下加剧了问题。关键是这些人很多人在高中的时候就没有那么适应，到了MIT这个不正常的环境就没有很好的适应机会，然后离开的时候还是不适应。 。当我在那里的时候，还有一个额外的问题，即每名女性有八名男性，所以当一名女学生离开麻省理工学院时，她必须应对不像在麻省理工学院那样受到那么多的关注。另外，你来到这里，你已经习惯了在高中时是最好的，但你只是平均水平，或者低于平均水平。我是高中唯一的钢琴演奏者，我来到这里，每个人都演奏......我喜欢你的标题。我认为这总结得很好。我曾经根据霸王龙的歌曲将其称为“金属大师”。我认为它具有同样的冷金属感。
Two of my friends there killed themselves. That's one of the reasons some of us started Nightline, the phone service that you could call to have someone to talk to in times of desperation. I think it happens for a couple of reasons, beyond the loneliness and the intense work atmosphere. A lot of students are pushing that fine line between genius and insanity, and some go back and forth across that line: In the case of Senior House, maybe the drugs exacerbated the problem in some cases. The key is that when many of these people were in high school they weren't that well adjusted, and when they come to the abnormal environment of MIT there's no great opportunity to become well adjusted, and then when they leave they're still maladjusted. When I was there there was also the added issue that there were eight men for every woman, so when a woman student left MIT, she'd have to cope with not as much attention as she had at MIT. Plus you come here and you're used to being the best in high school and you're just average, or below. I was the only piano player in my high school, and I came here and everyone plays.... I like your title. I think that sums it up well. I used to call it "Metal Guru," after the song by T. Rex. I think it has that same cold metallic sense.
来自《Sport Death》T 恤的主要来源：“麻省理工学院的每个人都有自己的事情要做。如果他们热衷于某件事，他们就会全力以赴……他们是如此兴奋。没有人昏昏欲睡；他们真正参与其中在他们正在做的事情中。”
And from the primary Sport Death T-shirt source: "Everybody at MIT has something going on. If they're into something they're way into it ... they're so wired up. Nobody's lethargic; they're really involved in what they're doing."
研究生恐怖故事。这是一个与任何地方一样好的地方。1991 年 2 月 9 日，我在麻省理工学院遇到了一位朋友。他的名字叫阿尔弗雷德·韦尔 (Alfred Weil)。他一直在攻读博士学位。七年，超出了他的硕士学位。
Graduate Student Horror Stories. This is as good a place as any for this. I bumped into a friend at MIT on February 9, 1991. His name will be Alfred Weil. He has been working on his Ph.D. for seven years, beyond his master's degree.
“把盒子的照片放进去。我希望你把盒子的照片放进去。”
"Put the picture of the boxes in. I want you to put the picture of the boxes in."
“这些盒子有什么大不了的？” 我看着照片中的木箱问道。
"What's the big deal about the boxes?" I asked while I looked at the wooden crates in the photo.
“它们是我造的，里面的每一个钉子都是我亲手钉进去的，这是博士的作品吗？让我给你看看我的一堆图纸。七年来，我建造了这个实验室的每一件设备。这是当我开始时，一个空房间，教授说，“我们想研究某某对某某的影响。” 就是这样。经过七年的工作，这个东西终于建成了，我抱怨我没有做足够的真正的科学，而那个家伙知道他的地牢里有一个好奴隶，他说，“你可以留下来只要你愿意。三年前，我抱怨我所做的只是技术工作，他们说，“你可以辞职了。” 他们把你置于这样一个境地：唯一合理的做法就是放弃。如果你抱怨自己在做毫无意义的苦差事、奴役劳动，他们会告诉你你不够好。并不是说这很难，这是因为它不适合博士研究。我认识的另一个人抱怨道，他的导师对他说，“你是节奏项目。” 就像你是一台机器一样。
"I built them. Every nail in them was hammered in by my hands. Is this the work of a Ph.D.? Let me show you my stack of drawings. Seven years I built every piece of equipment in this laboratory. It was an empty room when I started, and the professor says, 'We would like to study the effect of such and such on such and such.' That was it. Finally the thing is built, after seven years of work, and I complain that I've not done enough real science, and the guy, knowing he has a good slave here in his dungeon says, 'You can stay as long as you want.' Three years ago I complained all I was doing was technician work and they said, 'You can quit.' They put you in a position where the only rational thing to do is to quit. If you complain that you're doing meaningless drudgery, slave labor, they tell you you're not good enough. It wasn't that it was hard, it's that it wasn't appropriate to a Ph.D. effort. Another guy I know complained, and his adviser said to him, 'You're the pacing item.' Like you're a machine.
“看，公众对麻省理工学院的看法就像一个峰值检测器。他们只看到诺贝尔奖、来自这个地方的发现、书籍、产品。但这些都是峰值，在这里，高于零。大多数人这个地方的人们在这里浪费着零以下的生命。
"See, the public perception of MIT is like a peak detector. They only see the Nobel prizes, the discoveries coming out of this place, the books, the products. But those are the spikes, here, high above zero. Where most of the people at this place are here wasting their lives below zero.
“这里的研究生教育非常不均质。这完全取决于你的导师是谁。我认识的一些人，通过预选赛后，从此一帆风顺。但其他人......
"It's very non-homogeneous, the graduate education here. It all depends on who your adviser is. Some people I know, after they passed the qualifiers, it was smooth sailing from then on. But others ...
“有一个人，他在主人那里呆了三年，然后他通过了资格赛，但在他的部门里，他们最后有将军，在当奴隶六年后，他让他的将军们失望了。然后他就离开了“他向院长请愿后，又回来了。他们让他通过了，然后他们说，你需要证明你有能力在另一个项目上进行研究。” 所以他花在实验上的六年时间就这样结束了。就好像他们超过了他，但他们没有超过他。
"There was one guy, he spent three years on his master's, then he passed the qualifiers, but in his department they have generals at the end, and after six years of being a slave he fails his generals. Then he goes away for a year, comes back, and takes them again, after he petitioned the dean. They let him pass, and then they say, You need to prove your ability to do research on another project.' So the six years he spent building the experiment is shot. It's like they passed him but they didn't pass him.
“另一名研究生触电了，我认识的这位技术人员告诉我，那家伙的导师告诉他，‘你必须时不时地为了科学而牺牲一名学生。’” 当然，这是断章取义的，而且可能是教授处理他可能有的内疚感的方式，但据说。
"And another graduate student got electrocuted, and this technician I know told me that the guy's adviser told him, 'You have to sacrifice a student to science now and then.' This, of course, was taken out of context, and was probably the professor's way of dealing with any feelings of guilt he might have had, but it was said.
“我会这样总结，”阿尔弗雷德继续说道。“他们利用麻省理工学院的声誉吸引有才华但容易上当受骗的人来到这里，并利用他们。”
"I'd sum it up like this," Alfred continued. "They lure talented but gullible people in here with MIT's reputation, and they use them."
阿尔弗雷德的案例或许不具有代表性，但确实存在。
Alfred's case may not be representative, but it does exist.
泊松分布。泊松分布定义如下：如果平均到达率为 v，则在时间 t 内有 m 个到达的概率为：
Poisson Distribution. A Poisson Distribution is defined as follows: If the average arrival rate is v, the probability of having m arrivals in time t is:
霍华德算出的时间是 6 点 55 分，所以 15 分钟是总时间，9 是到达总数，v 是平均到达率，是 9/15，即 0.6。10(t) 分钟内总共 3(m) 人到达的概率为：
It was 6:55 when Howard made his calculation, so 15 minutes is the total time, 9 is the total number of arrivals, and v, the average rate of arrival, is 9/15, or 0.6. The probability of a total of 3 (m) people arriving in 10 (t) minutes is:
第12章
CHAPTER 12
关于2.70的历史记录：它是由机械工程系设计组教授Woodie Flowers于七十年代初发起的。
An historical note on 2.70: It was started in the early seventies by Woodie Flowers, professor in the design group of the mechanical engineering department.
第13章
CHAPTER 13
有关史瓦西半径和黑洞的更多信息，请参阅史蒂文·霍金的《时间简史》（纽约：班塔姆，1988 年）。有关相对论中孪生佯谬的更多信息，请参阅 H. Muirhead 所著的《狭义相对论》（纽约：John Wiley & Sons，1973 年），第 17 页。39，或相对论，雷·斯金纳 (Ray Skinner) 着，（马萨诸塞州沃尔瑟姆：布莱斯德尔出版社，1969 年），第 14 页。94.
For more about the Schwarzschild radius and black holes, consult A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking (New York: Bantam, 1988). For more about the twin paradox in relativity, consult The Special Theory of Relativity, by H. Muirhead, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1973), p. 39, or Relativity, by Ray Skinner, (Waltham, Mass.: Blaisdell Publishing, 1969), p. 94.
第14章
CHAPTER 14
玩具鸟。这款小鸟玩具名为“饮水快乐鸟”，由 ARORA 在台湾（麻省理工学院）制造。在撰写本文时，该产品可在波士顿科学博物馆的博物馆商店和儿童故事玩具店（434 Harvard St., Brookline, MA）购买（617-2326182）。
Toy Bird. The bird toy is called the "Drinking Happy Bird," made in Taiwan (MIT) by ARORA. At this writing it is available at the Museum Store of the Boston Museum of Science, and at the Children's Story Toystore, 434 Harvard St., Brookline, MA (617-2326182).
永动机（一般）。如需进一步阅读，请参阅文章：“Perpetual Motion Machines”，作者：SW Angrist，《科学美国人》(1968)，218：114-22；以及《大英百科全书》中题为“永动机”的文章。
Perpetual Motion Machines (general). For further reading, consult the article: "Perpetual Motion Machines," by S. W. Angrist, Scientific American (1968), 218:114-22; and the article entitled "Perpetual Motion Machines" in Encyclopaedia Britannica.
摩擦力计算。通过了解一旦维持车轮运转的能源关闭后车轮需要多长时间才能停止，就可以大致计算出使车轮克服使其停止的摩擦力保持移动所需的功率。
Friction Calculation. From a knowledge of how long it takes the wheel to come to a stop once the energy source that keeps it going is off, it is possible to calculate approximately the power required to keep the wheel moving against the friction that makes it stop.
轮子每 4 秒旋转约 1 圈。因此，其频率 f 为 0.25 sect，其角速度 omega 为：
The wheel rotated at about 1 revolution every 4 seconds. Thus its frequency, f, was 0.25 sect, and its angular velocity, omega, was:
自行车车轮可以看作是一个绕其轴旋转的圆环，其转动惯量 (I) 简单为：
The bicycle wheel can be considered as a hoop rotating about its axle, and its moment of inertia (I) is simply:
中号×R2
M x R2
MX R2，其中M是轮辋的质量，R是车轮的半径。
M X R2, where M is the mass of the rim, and R is the radius of the wheel.
车轮的轮辋质量可能约为 1 千克。直径为 27 英寸的车轮的半径为 13.5 英寸，即 0.343 米。那么它的转动惯量为：
A wheel might have a rim mass of about 1 kg. A 27-inch diameter wheel has a radius of 13.5 inches, or 0.343 meters. Its moment of inertia is then:
大约过了30秒，车轮才停了下来。可以通过将车轮运动中存储的能量除以耗散该能量所需的时间来估计保持其运转的平均功率。车轮中储存的能量为：
It took about 30 seconds for the wheel to come to a stop. An estimate of the average power to keep it going can be made by dividing the energy stored in the motion of the wheel by the time it takes to dissipate that energy. The energy stored in the wheel was:
正如琼斯博士声称的那样，为了让这个东西运行三周，它需要一个能够存储以下内容的电池：
For the thing to run three weeks, as Dr. Jones claimed, it would need a battery capable of storing:
根据美国百科全书，典型的 D 型电池（也称为 Leclanche 干电池）每磅的电量约为 0.045 千瓦时。三个 D 型电池重约一磅，因此一个电池应承载约 0.015 kWh，因此一个 D 型电池足以为机器供电。
According to Encyclopaedia Americana, a typical D-cell battery (also known as a Leclanche dry cell) carries about 0.045 kilowatthours per pound. Three D-cell batteries weigh about a pound, so one battery should carry about 0.015 kWh, so one D-cell battery would be more than adequate to power the machine.
1791 年，博洛尼亚大学解剖学教授 Luigi Galvani（即电镀、电偶作用）发现了电池，当时他意外地将两种不同的金属与潮湿的物质接触。Allesandro Volta（电压）是邻近的帕维亚大学的自然哲学教授，他于 1800 年发明了第一个蓄电池，即“伏打堆”。阿尔卑斯山的山麓。
The battery was discovered by Luigi Galvani (as in galvanize, galvanic action), professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna, in 1791, when he accidentally brought two dissimilar metals into contact with a moist substance. Allesandro Volta (as in voltage), professor of natural philosophy at the neighboring University of Pavia, developed the first storage battery, the "voltaic pile," in 1800. Professor Volta spent much time in Como, the lovely town on Lake Como, in the foothills of the Alps.
有关旋转系统的系统动力学的更多信息，请参阅 Shearer、Murphy 和 Richardson 所著的《系统动力学导论》（Introduction to System Dynamics）（马萨诸塞州雷丁：Addison-Wesley，1971 年）。
For more on system dynamics of rotational systems, consult Introduction to System Dynamics, by Shearer, Murphy and Richardson (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1971).
车轮上的风力。如果铜管中有空气通过，沿着边缘的侧面产生剪切力，则功率将被传递到边缘，如下计算。
Wind Force on Wheel. If the copper tubes had air going through them, to shear along the side of the rim, power would be delivered to the rim, as calculated below.
或总计约 2 x 10-4 瓦。我们刚刚计算出的摩擦功率约为 0.005 瓦，因此喷射器无法提供足够的功率来克服摩擦。如果有喷气式飞机，他们就不会转动方向盘。
or about 2 x 10-4 watts in total. The friction power we just calculated above as about 0.005 watts, so the jets would not be able to deliver enough power to overcome the friction. If there were jets, they wouldn't turn the wheel.
动板电容器。有关这些内容的讨论，请参阅 Crandall、Karnopp、Kurtz 和 Pridmore-Brown 所著的 Dynamics of Mechanical and Electromechanical Systems（Malabar，佛罗里达州：Krieger Publishing [最初为 McGraw-Hill，1968 年]），第 1 章。6.
Moving Plate Capacitors. For a discussion of these, consult Dynamics of Mechanical and Electromechanical Systems, by Crandall, Karnopp, Kurtz, and Pridmore-Brown (Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Publishing [originally McGraw-Hill, 1968]), Ch. 6.
电机原理。有关电动机工作原理的更多信息，请参阅《The Way Things Work》，第 300-301 页。
Motor principle. For more on how electric motors work, consult The Way Things Work, pp. 300-301.
第15章
CHAPTER 15
黑客攻击（一般）。有关此主题的更多信息，请参阅 Brian Liebowitz 撰写的 The Journal of the Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery and Pranks（马萨诸塞州剑桥：麻省理工学院博物馆，1990 年）。活牛的故事可能是杜撰的。
Hacking (general). For more on this subject, see The Journal of the Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery and Pranks, by Brian Liebowitz (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Museum, 1990). The live cow story may be apocryphal.
共振频率。有关这方面的更多信息，请参阅希勒、墨菲和理查森的《系统动力学导论》或任何基础物理教科书。在 Halliday 和 Resnick 的《物理学基础》中，共振被定义如下：“每当一个能够振荡的系统受到一系列周期性脉冲的作用时，这些脉冲的频率等于或接近等于系统振荡的固有频率之一，系统开始以相对较大的幅度振荡。” 这种情况偶尔会发生在桥梁上，有一个著名的电影片段，显示塔科马海峡（华盛顿州）桥梁因风引起的振动而产生共振并最终倒塌。
Resonant Frequency. For more about this, consult Shearer, Murphy, and Richardson, Introduction to System Dynamics, or any elementary physics textbook. In Halliday and Resnick, Fundamentals of Physics, resonance is defined as follows: "Whenever a system capable of oscillating is acted on by a periodic series of impulses having a frequency equal or nearly equal to one of the natural frequencies of oscillation of the system, the system is set into oscillation with a relatively large amplitude." This has happened with bridges occasionally, and there is a famous film clip of the Takoma Narrows (Washington state) bridge resonating and ultimately collapsing as a result of wind-induced oscillations.
“共鸣”这个词也被文学界盗用了，因为当书中的所有内容都放在一起，你终于弄清楚作者想说什么时，会产生一种起鸡皮疙瘩的感觉。
The term resonance has also been stolen by the literary community, as that feeling of goose bumps when everything in the book comes together and you finally figure out what the author is trying to say.
第16章
CHAPTER 16
有关频闪灯及其使用方法的更多信息，请参阅 Harold E. Edgerton 所著的《Electronic Flash, Strobe》（马萨诸塞州剑桥：麻省理工学院出版社，1979 年），第 2 版。
For more on the strobe light and how to use it, consult Electronic Flash, Strobe, by Harold E. Edgerton (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1979), 2nd ed.
第二个有趣的轶事。1983 年春天，我和以色列陆军军官安参加了一次公开的机械工程系会议。会议由 Rohsenow 教授主持，会议主题转向政府如何削减研究经费。
Second Amusing Anecdote. An, the Israeli army officer, and I attended an open mechanical engineering department meeting in the spring of 1983. Professor Rohsenow conducted the meeting, and the topic steered toward how the government was cutting back on research funding.
罗森诺说：“好吧，如果你认为私营企业会用不向政府纳税的钱来填补空缺，那么我们应该没问题。”
Rohsenow said, "Well, if you assume that private industry will take up the slack with the money that they don't pay the government in taxes, we should be fine."
韦尔教授问道：“对不起，你怎么能做出这样的假设呢？”
Professor Weare asked, "Excuse me, but how can you make that assumption?"
“我是共和党人，”罗森诺回答道。
"I'm a Republican," Rohsenow answered.
第十七章
CHAPTER 17
有关 LISP 的更多信息，请参阅 Abelson 和 Sussman 着的《Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs》（McGraw-Hill 和 MIT Press，1985 年），以及 Patrick H. Winston、Berthold Klaus 和 Paul Horn 着的《LISP》（马萨诸塞州雷丁市：Addison） -韦斯利，1981）。有关人工智能的阅读，请参阅帕特里克·温斯顿 (Patrick Winston) 所著的《人工智能》（Addison-Wesley，1984 年）。另外，Douglas R. Hofstadter 所著的《哥德尔、埃舍尔、巴赫》（纽约：Vintage Books，1989 年）在这方面应该也很不错，尽管我还没读过。这并不意味着我已经阅读过本文提到的任何其他书籍。自行车。如果您在比利时迪南（顺便说一下，萨克斯管的发明者阿道夫·萨克斯的出生地）附近，可以去法尔米努尔村的 Musr a de la Petite Reine 看看。无论如何，它在 1980 年就已经存在了。您可能需要提前致电（比利时：082-74.44.05）或写信。他们有十九世纪发明的许多不同类型自行车的样本。地址是：Musee de la Petite Reine；那慕尔省法尔米尼奥勒；比利时。该博物馆由欧内斯特·沃特斯先生创建。
For more on LISP, consult Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson and Sussman (McGraw-Hill and MIT Press, 1985), and LISP, by Patrick H. Winston, Berthold Klaus, and Paul Horn (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1981). For reading on artificial intelligence, consult Artificial Intelligence, by Patrick Winston (Addison-Wesley, 1984). Also Godel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas R. Hofstadter (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), is supposed to be really good along these lines, although I haven't read it. Which is not to imply that I've read any of the other books referred to herein. Bicycles. If you're ever near Dinant, Belgium (incidentally the birthplace of Adolph Sax, inventor of the saxophone), go to Musr a de la Petite Reine, in the village of Falmignoul. It was there in 1980, anyway. You might want to call ahead (Belgium: 082-74.44.05) or write. They have samples of the many different types of bicycles invented during the nineteenth century. The address is: Musee de la Petite Reine; Falmignoul, Province de Namur; Belgium. The museum was created by Mr. Ernest Wouters.
第18章
CHAPTER 18
请注意，本章提出的论文结果旨在说明分析和讨论实验数据的过程。我所做的工作融入了 E. Balles 和 M. Theobald 后来的工作中。该工作可通过引用 JB Heywood 教授发表的汽车工程师学会论文来找到。
Please note, the thesis results presented in this chapter are meant to illustrate the process of analyzing and discussing experimental data. The work I did fed into later work by E. Balles and M. Theobald. That work may be located by referencing Society of Automotive Engineers papers published by Professor J. B. Heywood.
哈佛桥。麻省理工学院博物馆商店有一个关于此的文件。它之所以不被称为科技桥，是因为当它建于 1800 年代末时，麻省理工学院还在波士顿。从技术上讲，它是以约翰·哈佛 (John Harvard) 的名字命名的，而不是哈佛大学 (Harvard College)，而且由于它在历史上的不同时期都存在结构问题，最终在 20 世纪 80 年代末被取代，麻省理工学院并不急于将这座桥的名称更改为技术桥。
The Harvard Bridge. The MIT Museum Shop has a file on this. It's not called the Technology Bridge because when it was built in the late 1800s, MIT was still in Boston. Technically it was named after John Harvard, not Harvard College, and since it had structural problems at various points in its history, culminating in its replacement in the late 1980s, MIT was not all that eager to have the bridge's name changed to the Technology Bridge.
惠斯通桥。有关这些工作原理的更多详细信息，请参阅 Kirk 和 Rimboi 的 Instrumentation（伊利诺伊州阿尔西普：American Technical Publishers，1975 年），第 17 页。117.
Wheatstone Bridge. For more detail on how these work, see instrumentation by Kirk and Rimboi (Alsip, Ill.: American Technical Publishers, 1975), p. 117.
在热线电路中，电阻不平衡会导致电桥两点之间产生电压差。然后，该电压差进入放大器，使整个电桥上的电压上升或下降，以保持热线风速计处于恒定温度，从而保持恒定电阻。因此，如果流量减慢，热线就会变热，放大电压就会下降。相反，如果流速加快，电线就会冷却，电压会迅速升高以保持电线的温度。放大的电压是您在示波器屏幕上读取的值。感谢 Alfred Weil 纠正我的解释。火花塞。请参阅事物运作方式，第 308-309 页。另请参见《内燃机》，Edward F. Obert 着（斯克兰顿，宾夕法尼亚州：国际教科书，1968 年），第 17 页。532页。该图来自那本书。
In a hot-wire circuit, the imbalance in resistances causes a voltage difference between two points of the bridge. That voltage difference then goes into an amplifier, which makes the voltage across the total bridge go up or down, to maintain the hot-wire anemometer at a constant temperature, and hence a constant resistance. So if the flow slows down, the hot wire gets hotter, and the amplified voltage goes down. Conversely, if the flow speeds up, the wire cools and the voltage quickly goes up to keep the wire hot. The amplified voltage is what you read on the oscilloscope screen. Thanks to Alfred Weil for correcting my explanation. Spark Plug. See The Way Things Work, pp. 308-309. Also see Internal Combustion Engines, by Edward F. Obert (Scranton, Pa.: International Textbook, 1968), p. 532ff. The diagram is from that book.
第19章
CHAPTER 19
见诗篇 91。
See Psalm 91.
第20章
CHAPTER 20
最终报价：
Final quotation:
让知识越来越多。但我们内心更多的是敬畏。那样的心灵和灵魂，也许可以像以前一样创作一首音乐，但更广阔。
Let knowledge grow from more to more. But more of reverence in us dwell. That mind and soul, according well May make one music as before But vaster.
——摘自阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生勋爵的《悼念》
-From in Memoriam, by Alfred Lord Tennyson
指数
Index
